Kik Representative Will Give Deposition in SEC Case on Jan. 28

Published at: Jan. 23, 2020

The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested a deposition from a representative of Kik Interactive Inc. to provide detailed information about its operations since releasing native token Kin.

Kik Interactive, the Canadian company behind the Kik messenger application, has been dragged into a long-standing legal battle with the U.S. regulator. The SEC claims that the company violated securities laws when it carried out Kik’s token distribution in 2017.

On Jan. 23, a Manhattan federal judge ordered that Kik Interactive share with the SEC information detailing how its business has changed since 2018. As such, the regulator called Kik’s head of operations and technical adviser, Tanner Philip, to give deposition on the matter, which is scheduled on Jan. 29.

Request for the trial date definition

The move follows Kik’s recent request for the formal definition of a trial date for the lawsuit. Kik continues arguing that the commission does not have strong evidence to support their claims, with CEO Ted Livingstone expressing his desire to go to trial as soon as possible, setting May 2020 as a possible target.

However, in response to a Nov. 26 court order, the two parties agreed on a roadmap to conclude the trial in June 2020. Additionally, the court documents released on Jan. 9 revealed that Kik objected to the SEC’s search for a deposition, which may further delay plans.

Cointelegraph reached out to Daniel Roy of Kik's legal team, but had not received a response at press time.

The SEC’s scrutiny on security offerings

Earlier in January, Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, gave an 18-hour deposition regarding the company’s alleged violation of U.S. securities law while conducting its $1.7 billion Gram token sale in 2018.  The SEC questioned Durov extensively on the company’s expenses and funding used to set up the firm. Telegram will have to provide its redacted bank records to the court by Feb. 26.

The SEC is also seeking a default judgment against token sale platform ICOBox and its founder Nikolay Evdokimov. The SEC had sued ICOBox and Evdokimov for operating an unregistered securities offering of roughly $14.6 million worth of digital assets in 2017, and operating as an unregistered securities broker.

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