Telegram's legal battle against the SEC is taking a new turn. The commission recently published the namesprospective investors who participated in the multi-billion dollar sale of company tokens in 2018.
From the testimony of the CEO of TelegramPavel Durov learned that Mickey Malka – former head of the Bitcoin Foundation and partner at Ribbit Capital – was an early investor in TON. A separate court document indicates that venture capitalist and ABBYY Lingvo developer David Yang also took part in the token sale.
In addition, several venture companies have invested in the project, including Kleiner Perkins, Fortress Investment Group, Draper Dragon, Dragoneer, DRW Holdings and Redpoint.
The SEC accusation is based on the fact that the primaryGram's offer was nothing more than a sale of securities. However, most investors said that they did not consider investing in the platform as a purchase of shares, but rather as an opportunity to support its development.
Voicing the names of investors, Telegram is tryingProve that the money raised during the ICO goes entirely to the development of the blockchain. When the judge asked who would become the validators on the future blockchain, Durov said:
It was obvious that some investors (such as Mickey Malka) had experience in validation processes, or at least were closely associated with parties who had experience in such processes.
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