A Russian oligarch, a former cabinet minister and the COO of German fintech company Wirecard invested in Telegram’s $1.7 billion initial coin offering (ICO), according to a previously unreported court document.
Tycoon Roman Abramovich and former Minister of Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov bought tokens, known as grams, via offshore funds, the document says.
These big names' involvement is the latest twist in the case brought against Telegram by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which claims the messaging app provider violated securities laws by failing to register its 2018 token sale.
The names, along with the amounts each of them invested, were listed in an attachment to an expert report by Stephen McKeon, a University of Oregon professor who was hired by Telegram to write an analysis of the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project.