The Telegram vs. the Securities and Exchange Commission case has taken a really interesting term. Earlier, messaging giant Telegram had refused to share its financial data with the SEC. The court had also denied the SEC’s request, but it did give the SEC access to a part of the requested information.

A long wait

Now, the lawyers representing Telegram are claiming that a review of their financial records could take as long as five to seven weeks.

According to a January 9 court filing, the lawyers stated that they’d need to analyze the data protection laws of multiple foreign jurisdictions, which was a lengthy process. In order to completely comply with all foreign privacy laws, the review would mean an analysis of approximately 4600 transactions that comprises of 770 different entities and individuals.

“76 entities or individuals for which we were able to make preliminary findings as to their jurisdiction appear to implicate 12 foreign jurisdictions,” a part of the filing reads.

The defense lawyers have come to the conclusion that a full review, analysis, processing, and production of the Records would require approximately 5-7 weeks to complete.

As The Daily Chain reported earlier, the SEC obtained a temporary injunction after Telegram was accused of conducting an illegal sale of their initial ‘Gram’ token offerings. It accused Telegram of not being registered under the SEC for its token sale.

The SEC had further requested a court order that granted it full access to Telegram’s financial records that show how “how much money Telegram has spent, and in what manner, in developing the TON Blockchain, the Telegram Messenger application to be integrated with the TON Blockchain, and related applications.” Telegram had refused to share the financial details.

In order to avoid further regulatory trouble, Telegram recently clarified that upon launch of the TON network, Telegram won’t be able to control the blockchain and the ecosystem as TON would be an independent entity. It said:

“Telegram won‘t be able to control the blockchain and the ecosystem after it launches. Pretty much like an architect who designed a skyscraper can’t control what happens with the building after it’s finished – including what gets built around, inside or on top of it.”

A medium for trouble

The news comes alongside recent warnings from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky as the notorious North Korean hacking group ‘Lazarus’ is now taking advantage of Telegram’s crypto platform to infect victim’s accounts. The fake company websites direct users with links to fake trading Groups where the hackers lie in wait to victimize crypto investors.

The group further uses the messaging application to infect the machines that run on Microsoft’s Windows by delivering a malicious payload.

