XRP Lawyer John Deaton: Accessed Records On Alleged Ethereum ICO Scam

John Deaton, the attorney who represents the over 70,000 XRP token holders in the Ripple Vs U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit, had kept the crypto community guessing about this announcement. However, there were hints that the announcement involved Steven Nerayoff, who was an early adviser in the Ethereum network project.

The attorney revealed that a major part of the announcement was about some of the very interesting claims made by Nerayoff, describing him as the most talked about person within the XRP community currently. Nerayoff claimed to have evidence of wrongdoings during the Ethereum initial coin offering in 2014.

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Who Is Steven Nerayoff?

In May 2023, a New York judge dismissed criminal extortion charges against the Ethereum early advisor. He was accused of extorting a crypto startup that he was consulted to assist in an ICO process. However, the federal prosecutors had admitted that they were unable to prove the charges in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Big Announcement: We’re Getting Closer

In a massive revelation, Deaton claimed that he had personally seen some of the receipts that Nerayoff claims to have, in relation to the allegations he made on the Ethereum ICO, although the attorney did not exclusively name the crypto project due to attorney client privilege. He concluded based on the records he saw that the insiders of the Ethereum ICO were not telling the truth.

“I have seen some of the receipts Nerayoff claims to have. I understand that he was targeted by some people at a cryptocurrency project (ETH) and I understand why he feels that. I can conclude that people who distanced from Nerayoff are not telling the truth.”

In the recent days, Nerayoff had been making allegations about the irregularities involved in the Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) and the corrupt practices at the US SEC. In a tweet dated September 17, 2023, Nerayoff revealed about someone at Etheruem hiding the real number of ETH ICO buyers. “Whales could disguise their large positions during the ICO,” he revealed. More importantly, he admitted to having some documental proofs about the same.

“I might have the doc versions by the author of the TOS (Terms of Use) amongst countless documents, recordings, etc. all stored in a number of locations.”

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Impact Of The Records On XRP Lawsuit

Attorney Deaton further explained that if the trial against Ripple chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse and the company’s co-founder Christian Larsen goes forward, the cross examination of Bill Hinman records will be super difficult for the US SEC. The federal regulatory agency’s December 22, 2020 complaint in the XRP lawsuit also charged the two top executives for allegedly raising capital through the sale of XRP in the form of unregistered securities. Earlier, CoinGape reported there was a change of attorney representing the CEO in this regard.

“Truth Will Come Out”

Deaton said he was not able to reveal many other details due to legal restrictions but concluded saying that as a community, “We’re getting closer” in the fight against regulators. “The truth will come out and we are getting closer,” he said.

In this context, CoinGape had earlier reported that an Ethereum ICO participant sold as many as 6,000 ETH tokens worth around $10 million. In August, it was reported that an address labled with the name of Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin saw a transfer of 3,000 ETH. Compared to a month ago, the ETH price is trading around 0.80% lower at the time of writing.

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