The United States Stock Exchange and Securities Commission demanded the Unicoin cryptographic company and three executives on Tuesday night for fraud charges, saying that the company raised more than $ 100 million for tokens that were not actually not supported by real estate that their executives affirmed.
The SEC demanded Unicoin, the CEO Alexander Konanykhin, the former president of the Maria Moschini Board, the senior vice president and a general advisor Richard Devlin and the former Investment Director and the Investor Relations officer Alejandro Dominguez on violations of the Securities Law,
Among his accusations, the SEC said that Unicoin never owned the real estate properties that he told the investors he had acquired, and that the values of these properties were inflated.
“For example, between September 2023 and January 2024, the defendants promoted property acquisitions in Argentina, Thailand, Antigua and the Bahamas, supposedly with values priced by a total of more than $ 1.44 million; in fact, most of those transactions never closed and the real combined value of the four properties was no more than $ 300 million,” the complaint is said.
The defendants also “exaggerated the sales of the company” of their rights certificates, which suggests in social networks publications and investors that had raised many more funds than it really had, the SEC alleged. While Unicoin said he had obtained $ 3 billion in sales in June 2024, he never sold more than $ 110 million in his rights certificates, according to the complaint.
In addition, Unicoin announced its rights certificates, even by promising huge yields of up to 9 million percent, the SEC alleged, pointing out the marketing efforts in taxis, transfers, “Elevator screens of office buildings,” Digital fence tables, post-life, television programs, websites of news and public kiosks of Wi-Fi.
“The additional examples of the statements of the defendants of the accused include: (a) social networks and publications of the website that promoted potential yields of 9,000,000% depending on the growth of 9,000,000% of Bitcoin in the last 10 years and told investors” took advantage of “the first days of Unicoin and obtain them today”, highlighting “Bitcoin experienced a tremendous increase in the value of the first to the first to the millionaires, and obtaining them today. “
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Unicoin received a war notice of the SEC last December, informing the company that the regulator, then under the leadership of former President Gary Gensler, intended to present securities fraud charges. Last month, Konanykhin sent a letter to Unicoin’s shareholders, informing them that the company had rejected the SEC attempt to resolve the charges, rejecting what it described as an “ultimatum” to attend a liquidation negotiation meeting before April 18.
“We declined to appear,” Konanykhin told Coindesk in an April interview, added that the SEC had made certain demands prior to the meeting he considered “unacceptable” and claiming that the research of the SEC had caused “multimillionaire damage” to the company.
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Neither Konanykhin nor a Unicoin spokesman responded to the request for comment from Coindesk at the time of publication. In a press release shared earlier this year in response to an article by Wall Street Journal, a spokesman said: “Unicoin, the only cryptocurrency company, regulated by the United States, regulated by the United States, of the United States, has constantly complied with all regulations.”
According to judicial documents, the SEC is seeking disgust and civil sanctions.
