SEC provides evidence of the sale of Telegram tokens after completion of ICO

Documents released by the SEC confirm that two or more organizations billed Telegram for commissionsfrom the sale of company tokens in the summer of 2018, months after the completion of the ICO.

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),which released the documents as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Telegram, said that evidence of token sales after the ICO debunk the company's arguments that the placement of tokens had the right to be exempted from registration requirements.

Investment fund Da Vinci Capital andan organization called Gem Limited asked for commissions of $209,783 and $1.1 million, respectively, for “subsequent sales” of agreements to purchase Telegram project tokens. According to SEC filings, on June 20, 2018, Da Vinci Capital sold more than $2 million worth of Gram tokens to a fund managed by its portfolio company ITI Funds. Gem Limited sold $8.6 million worth of Gram to Goliat Solutions and $4.5 million to Space Investments Limited on July 2, 2018.

Both sales occurred after two roundsThe ICO, which Telegram claimed was eligible for the Registration D exemption, was completed in February and March 2018.

Latest documents addeda list of evidence that the SEC submitted to the District Court for the Southern District of New York to support the illegal sale of Gram tokens as unregistered securities.

“These documents debunk Telegram's claimsthat the offering was eligible for an exemption from registration requirements under "Regulation D". In addition, Telegram either raised more than $1.7 billion, or the company failed to raise the entire amount by March 29, 2018, and funds could later be raised through underwriters,” — the SEC said in its filing, citing the accounts.

The SEC states that, in accordance with RegulationD" the issuer must take reasonable steps to ensure that buyers do not act as legal underwriters (that is, do not sell the issuer's securities for commissions), notes lawyer Seward & Kissel Philip Moustakis.

According to SEC billing Telegramcompanies did just that. At the same time, Telegram says that the commission was a fee for distributing information about Gram to other investors outside the United States, Mustakis said.

The American regulator in October 2019 accused Telegram of unregistered sale of tokens a year and a half after the ICO.

Telegram agreed to postpone the launch of the project,which was previously scheduled for the end of October, until April 2020. TON investors approved the postponement of the launch, refusing to refund funds until disputes with the SEC are resolved. Let us also recall that at the beginning of the month the Telegram company refused to provide the SEC with information on banking transactions related to ICO costs.

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