As Per Kik CEO, Ted Livingston The Firm Spent Over $5 Million On Negotiations With US SEC

The CEO of Canadian-based messaging startup Kik, Ted Livingston explained that the company spent over $5 million on ongoing negotiations with the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), as per an interview with cryptocurrency news outlet Coindesk published on May 16.

At the end of January, the SEC announced that it believes that Kik’s “Token Distribution Event” two years ago violated securities laws when the company raised $97 million during the sale. After the SEC’s recommendation of an enforcement action in November 2018, Kik served a “Wells Notice,” i.e. a letter to the company that needs to be responded to within 30 days.

Livingston told the publication on Thursday, at the Token Summit in New York that the company spent over $5 million on its negotiations with the regulator. He also reportedly added:

“We’ve spent a lot of time on this, we’ve spent the last 18 months traveling to Washington.”

The firm warned U.S. regulators in January that it would fight a proposed enforcement action against it. Last week, the chief of the office of capital markets trends at the SEC, Amy Starr expressed the regulator’s willingness to interact with local crypto and blockchain-related businesses. Starr argued that U.S. securities laws are “written to be dynamic.”

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Image Source – Ted Livingston Twitter