Securities and Exchange Commission v. Telegram Group Inc.

District Court, S.D. New York·Decided June 17, 2020·No. 1:19-cv-09439·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ------------------------------------------------------------x SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION,

Plaintiff, 19-cv-9439 (PKC)

-against- OPINION AND ORDER

TELEGRAM GROUP INC. and TON ISSUER INC.,

Defendants. ------------------------------------------------------------x

CASTEL, U.S.D.J. Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), defendants (collectively “Telegram”), and several non-parties move to seal documents submitted in connection with motions in this case. (Docs. 28, 60, 105, 135, 138, 139, 142, 143, 148, 152, 157, 158, 196, 207). Certain non-parties also move to intervene pseudonymously. (Docs. 129, 131). For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant in part and deny in part these motions. LEGAL STANDARD There is a common-law and First Amendment right of public access to judicial documents. Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110, 119–20 (2d Cir. 2006). As such, documents may be sealed “only with specific, on-the-record findings that sealing is necessary to preserve higher values and only if the sealing order is narrowly tailored to achieve that aim.” Id. at 124. Under this framework, a court must determine: (1) whether the document subject to a sealing request qualifies as a judicial document; (2) the weight of the presumption of public access attaching to that judicial document; and (3) if any countervailing factors or higher values outweigh the right of public access to that judicial document. Id. at 119–20. To be classified a judicial document, material “must be relevant to the performance of the judicial function and useful in the judicial process.” Brown v. Maxwell, 929 F.3d 41, 49 (2d Cir. 2019) (quoting United States v. Amodeo, 44 F.3d 141, 145 (2d Cir. 1995) (“Amodeo I”)). “A document is thus ‘relevant to the performance of the judicial function’ if it would reasonably have the tendency to influence a district

court’s ruling on a motion or in the exercise of its supervisory powers . . . .” Id. Though all judicial documents carry a presumption of public access, a court must determine the weight of this presumption as applied to a particular judicial document. The appropriate weight is “governed by the role of the material at issue in the exercise of Article III judicial power and the resultant value of such information to those monitoring the federal courts.” Id. (quoting United States v. Amodeo, 71 F.3d 1044, 1049 (2d Cir. 1995) (“Amodeo II”)). Documents submitted in connection with trial or summary judgement are entitled to the highest presumption of public access, documents filed in connection with other non-dispositive motions are subject to a “still substantial” presumption of public access, and discovery documents not filed with the court “lie entirely beyond the presumption’s reach.” Id. at 49–50, 53.

Against the applicable presumption of public access, the court must consider whether countervailing factors or higher values dictate that the document at issue should be sealed. Established factors and values that can outweigh the presumption of public access include legal privilege, Lugosch, 435 F.3d at 125 (stating that legal privilege could be a sufficient countervailing factor to outweigh the presumption of public access), business secrecy, see Amodeo II, 71 F.3d at 1051 (“Commercial competitors seeking an advantage over rivals need not be indulged in the name of monitoring the courts . . . .”), and privacy interests, see id. (“The court also considers ‘the privacy interests of those resisting disclosure.’ Financial records of a wholly-owned business, family affairs, illnesses, embarrassing conduct with no public ramifications, and similar matters will weigh more heavily against access than conduct affecting a substantial portion of the public.” (citation omitted) (quoting Lugosch, 435 F.3d at 120)). If one of these factors or values outweigh the value to the public of accessing the document at issue, then that document should be sealed. Additionally, sealing should be “narrowly tailored,” Lugosch, 435 F.3d at 124, and redacting

sensitive information is a preferable alternative to sealing an entire document. United States v. Aref, 533 F.3d 72, 83 (2d Cir. 2008) (stating that courts should “avoid sealing judicial documents in their entirety unless necessary”). DISCUSSION On October 11, 2019, the SEC filed a Complaint, an application for a temporary restraining order, and a request for a preliminary injunction against Telegram.1 The Court granted the temporary restraining order and ultimately set a date in February 2020 for a hearing on the preliminary injunction. The parties agreed to conduct expedited discovery and brief summary judgment motions in preparation for the February 2020 hearing. On January 15, 2020, the parties submitted dueling summary judgment motions and the SEC also filed a motion to strike one of Telegram’s affirmative defenses. In support of their respective motions, the parties submitted

statements of facts as well as a copious number of exhibits, some of which were filed under temporary seal. After hearing oral argument on February 19, 2020, the Court granted the SEC’s request for a preliminary injunction and deferred decision on the summary judgment motions as well as the motion to strike. (Doc. 227). The parties have moved to seal all or portions of a number of the documents submitted in support of these motions as well as documents related to discovery disputes submitted

1 The Court presumes familiarity with the procedural history and facts of this case as laid out in its March 24, 2020 Opinion and Order. (Doc. 227). to the Court. Additionally, several non-parties, which invested in Telegram’s offering of Grams or were previously employed by Telegram, have intervened to request that documents produced to the SEC and included among the parties’ supporting materials be sealed in whole or in part. I. Documents Submitted in Support of the SEC’s Application for Temporary Restraining Order. In support of its October 11, 2019 request for a temporary restraining order, the SEC submitted the Declaration of Daphna A. Waxman and 40 attached exhibits, labeled Exhibits A to HH. (Doc. 16). Twelve of these exhibits, Exhibits L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, Y, AA, GG, and HH, were filed under temporary seal. On October 23, 2019, the SEC submitted a motion to permanently seal portions of the relevant exhibits, proposing redactions to protect the privacy

and proprietary business interests of certain non-party investors. (Doc. 28). The SEC’s motion to seal is unopposed. The Court has individually reviewed and made particularized findings as to each exhibit covered by the SEC’s October 23 motion to seal. First, the Court finds that all of these documents are judicial documents and therefore enjoy at least some presumption of public access. As discussed above, a judicial document is “relevant to the performance of the judicial function and useful in the judicial process.” Brown, 929 F.3d at 49. The Second Circuit explained that “[a] document is . . . ‘relevant to the performance of the judicial function’ if it would reasonably have the tendency to influence a district court’s ruling on a motion or in the exercise of its supervisory powers.” Id. at 49. Here, all the documents at issue were submitted by the SEC to the Court in

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