The U.s. Securities and Commutation Commission (SEC) asked the High Court of England and Wales to force Telegram'south former principal investment counselor John Hyman to testify in the example over the firm's Grams tokens offering.

The SEC's asking was revealed by documents filed past the regulator with the U.Due south. District Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday.

Security or not?

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the SEC is convinced that Telegram'south Grams tokens are unregistered securities. According to the regulator, Telegram claimed that its Grams Purchase Agreements but did not claim the same about the actual tokens. Furthermore, "in any event, the exemption from registration under Regulation D is non available to Telegram."

Per the filing, the SEC is looking to obtain Hyman'southward testimony because of his involvement in Telegram'southward fundraising efforts. He reportedly communicated with "over a dozen" investors of the firm's Telegram Open Network (TON). According to the documents, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov defined him in January last year as the person who "runs the distribution of Grams."

The U.South. regulator requested the U.Thousand.'s government to issue a Letter of Request for Hyman's deposition, given that he is a United Kingdom'due south citizen and resides there. According to the filing, the SEC attorney previously contacted Hyman's counsel and Hyman agreed to appear for a voluntary degradation.

Still, later Hyman'due south counsel allegedly "refused to return multiple phone calls and emails regarding Mr. Hyman'south deposition." Other than his testimony, the SEC is also looking to obtain copies of Hyman'south written communications with Telegram'due south leadership and investors, documents about his employment at Telegram and his own investment in grams.

As Cointelegraph reported at the stop of November, a Us federal judge has preserved the SEC'south move to strike Telegram'southward defense "for vagueness/lack of notice."

Jared Leto invested in Telegram'southward TON?

The documents also contain e-mail exchanges between Durov and potential Grams token buyers. Interestingly, this includes communications with Kleiner Perkins' partner Mamoon Hamid, who was introduced to Durov past a person named Jared Leto.

While it is unclear whether the person is the popular singer and role player himself, he used an electronic mail address hosted on the glory'southward official domain jaredleto.com.