The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provided the court with accounts proving that Telegram sold Gram tokens worth more than $ 15 million through underwriters (individuals who resell securities for a percentage of sales), after they have completed the ICO TON in the spring of 2018.
According to the above documents, at the end of June 2018, Da Vinci Capital sold Gram tokens to the ITI Funds fund for $ 2 million, for which it received $ 209,783 in commissions from Durov. In early July 2018, another Gem Limited company sold Telegram tokens to two other companies for a total of $ 13.1 million for a fee of $ 1.1 million. Both companies declined to comment on these events.
According to the SEC, this fact suggests that Telegram has violated the rules of regulation D, according to which the ICON TON was conducted. The SEC said that either Telegram raised more than $ 1.7 billion on stated exceptional conditions, or, conversely, less and gained the missing funds through underwriters.
Philip Mustakis, Advisor to Seward & Kissel and former SEC Senior Attorney, said:
According to the rules of regulation D, the issuer must take measures to prevent buyers from acting as legal underwriters.