The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency investment platform Unicoin and three of its executives, accusing them of making false and misleading statements about their crypto assets. The SEC alleges that the company raised over $100 million from investors through deceptive practices.

According to the SEC's complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court, Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin, board member Silvina Moschini, and former investment chief Alex Dominguez are accused of misleading more than 5,000 investors. The trio allegedly made fictitious promises that the tokens issued by Unicoin would be backed by real-world assets, including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings.

Mark Cave, the SEC Division of Enforcement associate director, stated that Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with misleading claims about the value of their assets. The SEC highlighted that the real estate assets Unicoin claimed to have were worth significantly less than stated, and the majority of sales of rights certificates were deemed illusory.

The SEC's complaint also accuses Unicoin of misrepresenting its financial situation to investors, including falsely claiming to have decades of financial runway when, in reality, it was under a year, and at times, as short as four months. The company allegedly overstated its sales, claiming to have sold over $3 billion in rights certificates when the actual figure was only $110 million. Furthermore, the tokens and certificates were falsely advertised as SEC-registered.

In addition to the three executives, Unicoin's general counsel, Richard Devlin, was charged with violating federal securities laws. Devlin agreed to pay a $37,500 civil penalty without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations.

Unicoin, Konanykhin, Moschini, and Dominguez have not yet responded to the allegations. Former FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that Unicoin received an SEC Wells notice in December regarding a token airdrop and was invited to a settlement negotiation with the SEC in April, which the company declined.

The SEC's crackdown on Unicoin and its executives underscores the regulatory scrutiny facing the cryptocurrency industry. The case serves as a reminder for investors to exercise caution and conduct thorough due diligence before investing in crypto projects to avoid falling victim to fraudulent schemes.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-charges-unicoin-100-million-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound