Federal Judge Orders Kik Technical Advisor to Sit for Deposition With SEC

Kik technical advisor Tanner Philp have to be deposed by the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) associated to the corporate’s 2017 kin token sale, elongating the invention course of within the messaging app’s battle with federal regulators.

The settlement was made Wednesday earlier than District Choose Alvin Ok. Hellerstein in the united statesDistrict Courtroom for the Southern District of New York. Overseeing the most recent movement for discovery on this $100 million ICO standoff, Choose Hellerstein initially dominated that Kik CEO Ted Livingston ought to seem for a deposition, however attorneys for each side appeared to come back to an settlement to have Philp seem as a substitute.

Choose Hellerstein stated the deposition ought to concentrate on the character of Kik Interactive’s enterprise from 2018 to the current.

In keeping with courtroom paperwork, Philp already offered testimony in August 2018.

The SEC needs Kik to offer extra testimony, paperwork and particulars on its enterprise and plans surrounding the kin token providing. The regulator alleged Kik violated federal securities legal guidelines final yr through the kin sale, suing the messaging platform in federal courtroom in June.

It initially filed a sweeping movement for discovery on Oct. 25, however amended that discover with a pared-down movement on Dec 8. 

Such paperwork may make clear Kik’s considering within the run-up to its preliminary coin providing, together with its executives’ ideas on the digital asset providing report issued by the SEC in 2017.

Kik disputed the SEC’s request in previous filings, saying the offered written solutions made additional testimony redundant. 

Kik had requested Choose Hellerstein to nix additional depositions. In a joint letter on Jan. 14, Kik’s authorized staff argued the SEC had already taken hours of testimony from senior administration – together with Livingston – and picked up hundreds of paperwork within the regulator’s multi-year investigation. It referred to as for a protecting order that may have restricted the invention course of.

It stated the SEC’s newest deposition notices had been over-broad and under-detailed. Kik stated the SEC didn’t adequately clarify its want for additional testimony, citing the deposition rule, Rule 30(b)(6), and saying the rule requires deposition notices clarify their investigatory intent with “painstaking specificity.”

The SEC rejected these claims in its portion of the joint letter. It argued its deposition notices do certainly search “related” info and additional quibbled with Kik’s interpretation of rule 30(b)(6), which it identified reads “cheap particularity,” not “painstaking specificity.”