The US SEC sues Unicoin crypto platform
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated legal proceedings against Unicoin, a cryptocurrency investment platform, and three of its executives.
The SEC has accused them of deceiving investors regarding their crypto holdings, which are purported to have generated over $100 million. The SEC’s allegations, which were submitted on May 20 in a federal court in Manhattan, are related to former investment chief Alex Dominguez, board member Silvina Moschini, and CEO Alex Konanykhin. They are accused of deceiving more than 5,000 investors regarding certificates that guaranteed their entitlements to Unicoin tokens and shares.
Mark Cave, the associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, claimed that the executives began exploiting investors in 2022 by fraudulently claiming that their coins would be backed by substantial real-world assets, such as a portfolio of valuable real estate.
The SEC argues that the true value of these real estate assets was significantly lower than Unicoin’s assertions, and that a number of the transactions involving rights certificates were either deceptive or nonexistent.
Unicoin and its officials are accused of violating numerous securities regulations, as detailed in the SEC’s complaint. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive action and the restitution of alleged illicit profits. The SEC underscored that Unicoin’s purported sales of over $3 billion in rights certificates were inaccurate, while the actual sales amounted to around $110 million. Additionally, the tokens and certifications were inaccurately depicted as having been registered with the SEC.
Unicoin’s general counsel, Richard Devlin, was also accused of violating federal securities regulations in addition to the allegations against the three executives. Devlin has agreed to submit a civil penalty of $37,500 to the SEC without acknowledging or disputing the allegations.
