The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced a civil complaint filed in federal court accusing cryptocurrency company Unicoin Inc. and its executives of orchestrating a massive securities offering fraud that raised more than $100 million from thousands of investors worldwide.
According to the SEC, Unicoin and four key executives spent the last three years promoting “Unicoin rights certificates,” falsely representing that these certificates granted rights to asset-backed Unicoin tokens. The complaint alleges that Unicoin misled investors about the fundamental nature and backing of these tokens, claiming they were supported by billions in real estate and equity interests. In reality, the company’s assets were worth only a small fraction of these claims, and the tokens were neither SEC-registered nor compliant.
The complaint further states that Unicoin grossly overstated the value of real estate acquisitions in Argentina, Thailand, Antigua, and the Bahamas, collectively claimed to be worth over $1.4 billion, when in fact the company never took title to most properties and significantly inflated their values.
Named defendants include CEO and Chairman Alex Konanykhin, former Chief Investment Officer Alex Dominguez, former president and board member Silvina Moschini, and general counsel Richard Devlin. While Devlin has agreed to pay a $37,500 civil penalty without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC is seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil penalties, and bans on Konanykhin, Moschini, and Dominguez from serving as officers or directors of public companies.
Mark Cave, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises of real-world asset backing. The assets were worth only a fraction of the claims, and much of the sales were illusory. Today’s action holds these executives accountable.”
The case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Unicoin Inc. et al., case number 1:25-cv-04245, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
