SEC Asks The English High Court To Force Telegram’s Advisor To Testify

SEC asks the High Court in England and Wales to put pressure on the Telegram former chief investment advisor John Hyman in order for him to testify in the case over the company’s Gram tokens offering. Let’s see further in the blockchain news below.

As per the reports by the crypto news media reported today, the SEC requested from the court and that could be seen by the documents filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission at first with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Yesterday. The SEC truly believes that the Telegram Gram tokens were and still are unregistered securities. According to the regulator, Telegram claimed that the Grams Purchase agreements didn’t claim the same about the tokens at all as it was mentioned in the agreement and it even stated that ‘’in any event, the exemption from registration under Regulation D is not available for Telegram.’’

As per the filing, the SEC asks the court to obtain Hyman’s testimony because of his involvement in the fundraising efforts of the company. He reportedly communicated with more than a dozen investors in the Telegram Open Network. According to the documents, Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov defined him in January last year as the person who ‘’runs the distribution of the grams tokens.’’

The US regulator then requested the UK authorities to issue a letter of request for Hyman’s deposition since he is a United Kingdom citizen and lives there as well. According to the filing as well, the SEC attorney contacted Hyman’s counsel and he even agreed to appear for a voluntary deposition. However, Hyman’s counsel later ‘’refused to return multiple phone calls and emails regarding the deposition.’’  Aside from his testimony, the SEC is also looking to obtain copies of Hyman’s written communications with investors and leaders of the company as well as documents about the employments there and the investment in grams.

At the end of November, the United States federal judge preserved the SEC’s move to strike Telegram’s defense ‘’for vagueness/lack of notice.’’ The documents also contained email communication between Durov and the potential Grams token buyers which includes communications with Kleiner Perkin’s partner Mamoon Hamid who was introduced to Durov by a person named Jared Leto (still uncertain whether it was the singer and actor himself).