- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Unicoin and three top executives with securities fraud
- The company and the execs allegedly misled investors about the value of its crypto tokens and real estate assets
- Unicoin reportedly raised over $100 million from thousands of investors through deceptive practices
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against New York-based Unicoin and three of its senior executives, alleging they engaged in a fraudulent scheme that raised more than $100 million from investors. The company is accused of making false claims about the backing of its Unicoin tokens and overstating its financial health and sales figures. The SEC’s action aims to hold the company and its leaders accountable for misleading thousands of investors, following the company’s decision to fight the SEC’s charges rather than settle last month.
Unicoin “Exploited Thousands of Investors”
According to the SEC, Unicoin and its executives—CEO and Chairman Alex Konanykhin, former President and current board member Silvina Moschini, and former Chief Investment Officer Alex Dominguez—misrepresented the nature of Unicoin tokens offered to investors by claiming that the tokens would be backed by a substantial portfolio of international real estate assets. However, the SEC alleges that these assets were worth only a fraction of what was claimed, rendering the majority of the company’s sales of rights certificates illusory, as Mark Cave, Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, explained in a press release:
We allege that Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens, when issued, would be backed by real-world assets including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings. But as we allege, the real estate assets were worth a mere fraction of what the company claimed, and the majority of the company’s sales of rights certificates were illusory. Unicoin’s most senior executives are alleged to have perpetuated the fraud, and today’s action seeks accountability for their conduct.
Inflated Sales and Financial Health
The SEC’s complaint further states that Unicoin exaggerated its sales figures to create an illusion of robust investor interest. For instance, the company announced in November 2022 that it had reached $200 million in Unicoin sales, with subsequent claims of $500 million by June 2023, $2 billion by March 2024, and over $3 billion by June 2024. In reality, Unicoin sold no more than $110 million in Unicoin Rights Certificates during the entire period. Additionally, the executives misrepresented the company’s financial condition, claiming it had sufficient funds to operate for decades, which was not the case.
The SEC has filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and civil penalties against Unicoin and the three executives.
When the SEC approached Unicoin with a settlement offer last month, it was quickly rejected, with describing the situation as “absurd,” asserting that Unicoin is “the most compliant crypto company in the U.S.” and is being unfairly targeted. Konanykhin has also suggested that the charges are politically motivated, driven by staff from the previous SEC administration who are resistant to the current regulatory shift under the Trump administration.
