Secrets of Durov’s cryptocurrency, triple dividends from Lukoil and life hacks for shopping in duty-free

Seven things that the US authorities said about Durov and Telegram

While the investors of Pavel Durov’s cryptocurrency project are “laughing nervously” in anticipation of news about the negotiations between Telegram lawyers and American regulators, The Bell studied in detail the lawsuit of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanding to ban Gram cryptocurrency. It lists over a hundred facts established by US officials in the process of preparing documents, and among them - previously unpublished or officially undeclared figures, amounts and information. Let's talk about the most interesting ones we found.

• Telegram has 300 million users. The last time the monthly audience of Telegram was officially announced in the spring of 2018 - then it was 200 million. The new figure of 300 million users is an estimate, but apart from the SEC, developers close to Telegram also mention it. According to the Telegram White Paper, the messenger should have 300 million users by the end of 2019.
• Investment contracts were issued by at least 39 American investors. They shelled out $424.5 million for at least a billion Grams. Before that, we only knew the total amount of funds raised during the two rounds - $ 1.7 billion, as well as the number of investors (81 in the first round , 94 in the second ; there may be intersections). However, the SEC clarifies that many investors keep a low profile, so there may be more American investors. American investors are large, according to the SEC, all but three of them bought at least 2.5 million Gram (in the first round there was no minimum investment amount, in the second round it announced $1 million).
• Durov defended himself against the desire of key investors to dump Gram in case of failure. Investors who bought the rights to cryptocurrency during the first round, according to the SEC, will be able to sell the received cryptocurrency in tranches of no more than 25% after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after receipt. They cannot physically violate this condition - a smart contract monitors its observance.
• Investors who were offered the purchase are scattered across dozens of jurisdictions. We know this thanks to the investment contract (available at The Bell), which contains warnings for citizens of different countries. The geography of potential investors is from Switzerland and Singapore to Kazakhstan and Australia. The most detailed and verbose liability warning is for investors from the United Arab Emirates. It is in the UAE (in Dubai) that the operating center of Telegram Group Inc is located.
• When selling contracts, investors were promised a return on investment dozens of times. One of the buyers was told in early 2018 that a return of “10x-50x” of the amount invested was likely. Gram marketing as a promising cryptocurrency during this period was handled by Pavel Durov himself.
• By January 31, 2019, the founders of Telegram and TON spent $218 million out of the $1.7 billion raised to develop the messenger and blockchain. The documents offered to investors stated that $520 million would be spent on the messenger between 2019 and 2021, and the agreement for investors warns that part of the funds raised will go to the personal needs of the founders of the project. The SEC emphasizes that far more funds have been raised than needed, and investors have no control over the purposes for which the money is spent.
• The “brain” of TON, Nikolai Durov, does not have a second citizenship or the US authorities do not know about him. The certificate in the lawsuit states that Pavel Durov has Russian and Saint Kitts and Nevis passports. Nicholas only lists Russia. In general, little is known about the relationship between Pavel and Nikolai SEC - for example, the lawsuit states at the same time that Pavel owns 100% of Telegram Group Inc., and that Nikolai is a co-owner of the company.

What do I get from this?

Formally, the SEC's main claim against Durov is the non-compliance of his ICO with the disclosure requirements for issuers on the open market. It will be a long time to argue about who is right in this situation, but one cannot but admit that as a result of the actions of the SEC, future buyers of Durov's cryptocurrency have already begun to receive information that may turn out to be important.

True, for early investors who were counting on a multiple increase in the value of the cryptocurrency, which they bought in closed rounds at $0.37 and $1.3, the regulator’s claims will most likely turn into lost profits. Gram's MSRP at launch is $3.62, according to the SEC lawsuit. Optimists have recently dreamed of $8, and in early October, investment funds offered to sell and buy Gram for $1.95, but now the price will fall, one of The Bell sources close to the process suggested after the lawsuit appeared.

MONEY

Lukoil will set a record for dividends

News with the message “Lukoil has pleased investors” is already somehow inconvenient to write, but today it happened again - the oil company announced a new dividend policy, which provides for the payment of 100% of adjusted free cash flow (FCF) to shareholders. This is much more than the current 25% of net profit, according to Vedomosti , in 2018 Lukoil would pay 455 billion rubles in dividends instead of the actually paid 187.5 billion. The company's shares on the Moscow Exchange grew by 2 %, since the beginning of the year, Lukoil has risen in price by 12.5%.

Bermuda allowed to pay taxes with cryptocurrencies

While US financial regulators are fighting cryptocurrencies on all fronts, banning the Telegram ICO and building barriers to Libra from Facebook, offshore jurisdictions are starting to use cryptocurrencies for the convenience of their resident clients. One of the most popular offshores, Bermuda, today became the first country in the world to allow paying taxes and fees with cryptocurrency, albeit tied to real assets, USDC stablecoins, whose exchange rate fluctuates following the dollar at a ratio of 1 to 1.

"Yandex" about Gorelkin's law

Elena Bunina, CEO of the Russian Yandex, gave RBC a keynote interview about the draft law by MP Anton Gorelkin, who himself does not particularly hide in his Telegram channel that the main goal of the project is Yandex. Bunina did not answer the main questions - for example, whether Yandex plans to change the ownership structure and how exactly - but she painted a picture of what will happen to the company if the bill is adopted in its current form. She considers the main “destructive consequence” in the event that Yandex has new Russian shareholders to be a mass exodus of employees and the cessation of work on new services.

FAKE NEWS

Who buried Prigogine

Few believed in the messages about the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in Africa, which flooded telegrams over the weekend, but everyone discussed it. The main questions are whether the main Russian expert on fake news himself could have been involved in these reports, and if so, why did he need it. There is no answer to the second question yet, but the first one seems to be. As The Bell found out, the first report that Prigozhin could be on the plane crashed in the Congo was published by a channel allegedly associated with his “media factory”.

PRACTICE

Why women are reluctant to delegate work

A new study from Columbia University Business School found that one of the biggest problems women face in office work is less willingness than men to delegate work to colleagues and subordinates. Not only are women less likely to share work, but they also experience more guilt when they do manage to do so, the authors of the study write. There is some reason to be reluctant to delegate—as previous research has shown , male office environments tend to judge women for being assertive and assertive. The authors of the study recommend managers to help employees delegate responsibilities, emphasizing the importance of training colleagues and the chances for development that it provides.

How to shop at Duty Free three times faster

Bloomberg has useful life hacks for those who fly frequently, from the founder of the travel service Away, Jen Rubio. In addition to useful, but common tips (how to find out about a plane delay before the official announcement and guarantee a flight in case of a flight cancellation), there are interesting life hacks on a topic beloved by Russians - how best to shop in duty free. It turns out, for example, that London Heathrow has a pre-order function and a personal shopping assistant - an employee takes you around the shops and helps you buy everything three times faster without missing your flight.