3 weeks ago
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto institution Unicoin and 3 executives connected Tuesday nighttime connected fraud charges, saying the institution raised implicit $100 cardinal for tokens that were not really backed by the existent property its executives claimed.
The SEC sued Unicoin, CEO Alexander Konanykhin, erstwhile committee seat Maria Moschini, elder vice president and wide counsel Richard Devlin and erstwhile main concern serviceman and capitalist relations serviceman Alejandro Dominguez connected securities instrumentality violations,
Among its allegations, the SEC said Unicoin ne'er really owned the existent property properties it told investors it had acquired, and that those properties' values were inflated.
"For example, betwixt September 2023 and January 2024, the Promoting Defendants announced acquisitions of properties successful Argentina, Thailand, Antigua, and the Bahamas, purportedly with appraised values totaling much than of $1.4 billion; successful fact, the bulk of those transactions ne'er closed and the existent combined worth of the 4 properties was nary much than $300 million," the ailment said.
The defendants besides "overstated the Company's sales" of its rights certificates, suggesting successful societal media posts and to investors that it had raised acold much funds than it really had, the SEC alleged. While Unicoin claimed it had made $3 cardinal successful income by June 2024, it really ne'er sold much than $110 cardinal successful its rights certificates, according to the complaint.
Moreover, Unicoin advertised its rights certificates, including by promising outsized returns of up to 9 cardinal percent, the SEC alleged, pointing to selling efforts connected taxi cabs, ferries, "office gathering elevator screens," integer billboards, coasters, tv programs, quality websites and nationalist wi-fi kiosks.
"Additional examples of the Promoting Defendants’ statements include: (a) societal media and website posts that touted imaginable returns of 9,000,000% based connected bitcoin’s 9,000,000% maturation successful the past 10 years and told investors to 'take vantage of the aboriginal days of Unicoin and get them today,' highlighting that 'Bitcoin experienced a tremendous emergence successful value, transforming aboriginal adopters into millionaires, and adjacent billionaires,'" the filing said.
Read more: Unicoin CEO: Why Are We Still Under the SEC’s Gun?
Unicoin received a Wells announcement from the SEC past December, informing the institution that the regulator — then nether the enactment of erstwhile Chair Gary Gensler — intended to record securities fraud charges. Last month, Konanykhin sent a missive to Unicoin’s shareholders, informing them that the institution had rebuffed the SEC’s effort to settee the charges, rejecting what helium described arsenic an “ultimatum” to be a colony dialog gathering by April 18.
“We declined to amusement up,” Konanykhin told CoinDesk successful an April interview, adding that the SEC had made definite pre-meeting demands helium deemed “unacceptable” and claiming that the SEC’s probe had caused “multi-billion-dollar damages” to the company.
Read more: Unicoin CEO Reject’s SEC’s Attempt to Settle Enforcement Probe
Neither Konanykhin nor a spokesperson for Unicoin responded to CoinDesk’s petition for remark by property time. In a property merchandise shared earlier this twelvemonth successful effect to a Wall Street Journal article, a spokesperson said, "Unicoin, the lone afloat U.S.-registered, U.S.-regulated, U.S.-audited, and U.S.-publicly reporting cryptocurrency company, has consistently complied with each regulations."
According to tribunal documents, the SEC is seeking disgorgement and civilian penalties.
English (US) 