Everscale Partner
The Southern District Court of New York rejected the SEC’s request for information on banking operations and the use of funds raised by the TON project as part of the ICO.
Yesterday, January 6, after a conference call by telephone with trial participants, Judge Peter Kevin Castel signed a decree declining that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) request for bank documentation from Telegram is denied.
Recall that Telegram raised about $ 1.7 billion through the sale of Gram tokens during the investment campaign, which lasted from January to March 2018 and which, in the opinion of the Commission, is an unregistered sale of securities. In its application, the SEC said that the defendants refused to provide information on how the funds raised were spent.
The regulator is sure that the requested documents are relevant to the case of a potential violation of Telegram’s securities laws, including data on the amount of money already spent during the development of the TON blockchain platform. In addition, the documents could contain information on how much commission Telegram paid to investors for the resale of Gram to other market participants.
However, Telegram lawyers are sure that the SEC’s actions are just an attempt to find incriminating evidence on the company without any reason.
“The SEC wants to receive extensive and confidential data that is weak or not related to the current case. The plaintiff in his letter distorts the legal aspects of the case and misses critical facts, ”said the lawyers.
However, at the moment there is still a possibility that the SEC will gain access to at least a portion of the requested information. By January 9 of this year, Telegram must submit a declaration stating the schedule for checking bank records to ensure their compliance with foreign data privacy laws.
The letter that the company sent to court says that Telegram has already provided the regulator with information on expenses for the period from January 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019. According to the company, this is quite enough. In addition, on January 7-8, the founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov should testify in the current proceedings in Dubai.
