BNY Mellon and Credit Suisse Involved in Telegram’s $1.7B Sale: Report

Published at: Dec. 10, 2019

Two global financial giants, BNY Mellon and Credit Suisse, were reportedly involved in Telegram’s $1.7 billion Gram (GRAM) token sale in 2018.

Telegram allegedly informed its investors that it was using BNY Mellon and Credit Suisse to move and store fiat currency raised in the GRAM sale, industry publication Coindesk reports, citing court filings released on Dec. 10.

A Telegram employee reveals the details in a series of messages attached to the filings

Shyam Parekh, a Telegram employee who is expected to give a deposition before the New York Southern District Court today, Dec. 10, reportedly provided details on how Telegram will process the raised funds in a series of messages attached to the court documents.

In one of the messages, Parekh reportedly provided international bank code for moving money to Credit Suisse via the Swift network. He said:

“We will receive the funds through BNY, which will forward the funds to CS (Schweiz) AG for final credit to Credit Suisse AG.”

According to the report, both BNY Mellon and Credit Suisse declined to comment on the issue.

Filings reveal names of the $1.7 billion token sale investors

Moreover, the messages in the filings reportedly disclosed name of investors that participated in the GRAM token sale. As such, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins reportedly poured in $30 million in Grams, while Lightspeed Ventures’ Chinese wing Lightspeed China invested $25 million and FBG Capital invested $10 million.

According to messages between Nikolai Oreshkin and Telegram’s former chief investment advisor John Hyman, the wide list of investors also includes a California-based fund managed by Elysium Ventures, which reportedly invested $12 million in total.

Other investors include Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai, Wordpress founding developer Matt Mullenweg, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, True Ventures partner Om Malik, former TechCrunch co-editor-in-chief Alexia Bonatsos as well as fashion tycoon Silas Chou.

Additionally, Hyman reportedly revealed that a significant amount of investment comes from Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent State from sources connected to Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov.

TON investors voted against the return of their funds amid the probe by the SEC

As reported, Durov will give a deposition before court reporters on Jan. 7 or 8, 2020. A deposition by Telegram’s vice president Ilya Perekopsky is scheduled for Dec. 16, 2019.

On Dec. 7, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested the High Court of England and Wales push Hyman to testify in the case.

The news comes after the SEC abruptly announced that Telegram’s $1.7 billion token offering was illegal in October 2019. Amid the probe by the regulator, investors in TON reportedly voted against the return of their funds, according to reports in late October 2019.

As Cointelegraph reported, the District Court for the Southern District of New York moved the case hearing on the SEC injunction filing against the TON to Feb. 18–19, 2020.

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