There appears to be a new twist in the Telegram vs SEC saga.
Despite foreign data privacy issues and questions of their relevancy, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York has ordered messaging app giant Telegram to release their bank records.
The court will allow redactions necessitated by foreign privacy laws but will ask for a log detailing the basis for the redactions. Telegram, the filing said, needs to produce the records by February 26, 2020.
The decision comes less than a week after the same judge denied the SEC access to Telegram’s bank records based on privacy concerns. With the SEC appearing to have new evidence against Telegram however, the Berlin-based but Russia-founded company now needs to present documents.
What evidence? Per the Coin Telegraph, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has found records showing two third-party companies billing Telegram for fees derived from selling Gram tokens to external investors. This, they say, is tantamount to underwriting: “a clear sign of a security offering.”
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