Former Telegram Chief Investment Adviser John Hyman was interrogated on February 4. During the interrogation, the court received additional information that the SEC can use in the debate of the parties in the February 19 case.
Initially, the upcoming meeting was to be held on February 18, where a temporary ban on the sale and distribution of Gram tokens would be discussed. The hearing was adjourned because on February 10, there was a farewell ceremony for federal judge Deborah Batts, who died on February 3 at the age of 72.
In mid-January, Telegram and the SEC appealed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to review their case in an expedited manner. On the same day, the positions of the parties were published. The messenger team communicated with the regulator within 18 months before the lawsuit was filed and was ready to make changes to the project, but did not receive sufficient feedback from the SEC.
Also, we want to remind you that that the Chamber of Digital Commerce intends to intervene as a third, independent party. Now, the SEC has additional arguments against Telegram.
John Hyman's testimony supports the SEC’s position that Telegram was selling investment contracts that included Gram in 2018.
John Hyman confirmed the SEC's argument that investors reasonably believed that they were buying securities from Telegram. Besides, according to Hyman, Gram was sold to underwriters, which accelerated the placement of cryptocurrencies at auction.
SEC's arguments were confirmed by a testimony from a former investment director that investors expected Telegram to continue working on the Telegram Open Network (TON) project even after the ecosystem was launched.
