Nazia Saeed
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency investment platform Unicoin and several of its top executives, accusing them of orchestrating a $100 million fraud by misleading thousands of investors with inflated claims about the value and security of their digital assets.
Fraud allegations and executive charges
On May 20, the SEC announced civil charges against Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin, board member Silvina Moschini, and former investment chief Alex Dominguez. The agency alleges the trio made deceptive claims to over 5,000 investors, assuring them that Unicoin tokens—promoted through so-called “rights certificates”—would eventually be backed by a multibillion-dollar international real estate portfolio.
However, according to SEC Division of Enforcement Associate Director Mark Cave, those promises were largely fictitious. “Starting in 2022, the defendants 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,” Cave stated. “In reality, the real estate assets were worth only a fraction of what was claimed, and most of the rights certificate sales were illusory.”
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False financial representations and regulatory violations
The complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, also alleges that Unicoin significantly overstated its financial health, claiming it had financial runway for decades when in truth it had less than a year at times as little as four months of operational funding.
Additionally, the SEC contends Unicoin misrepresented its fundraising success. While the company claimed to have sold over $3 billion in rights certificates, investigators found only $110 million in actual sales. The certificates and the associated tokens were also falsely marketed as registered with the SEC.
General Counsel Richard Devlin was also charged with federal securities law violations. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Devlin agreed to a $37,500 civil penalty.
Ongoing legal battle and company’s response
Unicoin, along with Konanykhin and Moschini, has yet to issue a public response. Efforts to reach Dominguez for comment were unsuccessful.
According to former FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, Unicoin received a Wells notice from the SEC in December 2024 over a token airdrop. The company was invited to a settlement meeting with the SEC on April 18, but Konanykhin reportedly declined the meeting, describing the regulator’s terms as “unacceptable” and vowing to contest the charges in court.
