The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Crypto Company Unicoin and three leaders on Tuesday night on charges of fraud and said the company raised over $ 100 million for tokens, which was not actually supported by the real estate claimed by managers.
SEC defendant Unicoin, CEO Alexander Konanykhin, former chairman Maria Moschini, Senior Vice President and Attorney General Richard Devlin and former chief investment manager and investor relationship officer Alejandro Dominguez on securities legislation, violation, violation
Among his claims, SEC said Unicoin never actually owned the property properties it told investors that it had acquired and that the values of these traits were bloated.
“For example, between September 2023 and January 2024, the promotional accused acquisitions of properties in Argentina, Thailand, Antigua and the Bahamas announced that the four annual values were a total of more than $ 300 million.
The defendants also “exaggerated the company’s sales” of its rights certificates and suggested in social media posts and to investors that it had raised far more funds than it actually had, alleged SEC. While Unicoin claimed it had earned $ 3 billion in Sales in June 2024, it never actually sold more than $ 110 million in its rights certificates, according to the complaint.
In addition, Unicoin announced his rights certificates, including by promising large returns of up to 9 million percent, alleged SEC, pointing to marketing efforts on taxis, ferries, “office building higher screens,” digital billboards, coasters, TV shows, news site and public Wi-Fi Kiosks.
“Further examples of the promotional defendant’s statements include: (a) social media and site posts that proclaimed a potential return of 9,000,000% based on Bitcoin’s growth of 9,000,000% in the last 10 years and asked investors to ‘take advantage of the early days of Unicoin and get them today,’ highlight ‘Bitcoin experienced a TRAPPEN.
Read more: Unicoin CEO: Why are we still under SEC’s gun?
Unicoin received a Wells message from SEC last December and informed the company that the regulator – then led by former President Gary Gensler – intended to submit securities fraud. Last month, Konanyykhin sent a letter to Unicoin’s shareholders and informed them that the company had rejected SEC’s attempt to settle the charges and reject what he described as an “ultimatum” to attend a conciliation negotiation meeting before April 18.
“We refused to show up,” Konanykhin told Coindesk in an April interview, adding that SEC had made certain requirements for meetings he considered “unacceptable” and claimed that SEC’s probe had caused “dollars of several billion dollars” to the company.
Read more: Unicoin CEO rejects SECS attempts to settle enforcement probe
Neither Konanykhin nor a spokesman for Unicoin responded to Coindesk’s request for comment after pressing time. In a press release shared earlier this year in response to a Wall Street Journal article, a spokesman, “Unicoin, said the only fully US-registered, US-regulated, US-revised and US-public reporting cryptocurrency company, has consistently complied with all rules.”
According to court documents, Sec Disgorgement and civil sanctions seek.
