Russian TON Investors Decry UK Firm’s ‘c. USD 1.5m Commission Fee’

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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Russian investors in the failed Telegram Open Network (TON) token launch said they have reported a British brokerage they said is withholding almost USD 1.5 million of their funds to the Moscow-based federal investigating authority.

Per a Telegram post from Baza, the group has taken its case to the Investigative Committee of Russia after alleging that an unnamed UK-based company that appears to have brokered payments for numerous Russian investors refused to pay them back in full.

The investors say that they invested almost USD 12 million in the Telegram private initial coin offering (ICO), which raised a total of USD 1.7 billion. As previously reported, Telegram has now abandoned TON following American regulatory intervention, agreeing to pay investors back as per the terms of investment contracts.

However, the group said the UK-based firm has only stumped up some USD 10 million, despite receiving a full refund from Telegram, and is retaining the rest as a “commission fee.”

The investors have launched a bid to sue the company for “large-scale fraud”-related offenses with the Investigative Committee, a body set up in 2011 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev. The Investigative Committee has reportedly begun an audit.

RBC quotes Yevgeny Krasnov, a licensed New York State lawyer and the head of international legal affairs at Buzko Legal, as stating that the firm in question was likely an investment fund operator that manages assets.

Late last month, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov stated that he had already paid back investors to the tune of around USD 1.2 billion.