SEC charges crypto project Unicoin, executives with $100 million fraud offering

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that it has charged New York-based crypto project Unicoin and its three top executives for allegedly offering fraud rights certificates to investors of its cryptocurrency and common stock.

Unicoin allegedly targeted thousands of investors with unsupported promises that its crypto tokens would be backed by real-world assets including real estate holdings and equity interests in pre-IPO companies worth billions of dollars, the SEC said .

"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," said Mark Cave, associate director in the SEC's Division of Enforcement.

The SEC alleged that the company claimed to have sold more than $3 billion in rights certificates, when in fact it raised no more than $110 million. The company also claimed that Unicoin tokens and the rights certificates were registered with the SEC, a statement the agency has clarified to be false. 

Such alleged fraud was vastly promoted to the public by Unicoin with advertisements in major airports, on thousands of New York City taxis, and on television and social media. This helped convince over 5,000 investors to buy Unicoin's rights certificates, according to the SEC. 

The SEC has filed a complaint against Unicoin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing the company and executives of violating the antifraud provisions within federal securities laws, among other charges. Those charged include CEO and Chairman Alex Konanykhin, former President and Chairwoman Silvina Moschini, and former Chief Investment Officer Alex Dominguez.

The complaint also charged Richard Devlin, general counsel of Unicoin, with antifraud violations for allegedly making similar misstatements in private disclosures. Devlin has since agreed to a permanent injunction and a civil penalty of $37,500, without admitting or denying the charges.

The Block has reached out to Unicoin for comment.