SEC sues Unicoin and executives for violating securities laws

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Last night, the SEC announced it was suing Unicoin and its executives, alleging that the team violated securities laws in its $100 million token raise. Specifically, the SEC named CEO Alexander Konanykhin, general counsel Richard Devlin and former CIO Alejandro Dominguez, as well as former board chair Maria Moschini, in the suit.

In the 77-page lawsuit, the SEC says that Unicoin and its executives made “false and misleading statements and material omissions” on various public forums. 

The team, the SEC claimed, told investors that its token would be backed by real-world assets, but the defendants “never actually intended for Unicoin tokens to be backed by any assets.”

Konanykhin, in the documents, is accused of selling his Unicoin Rights Certificates “months after receiving them from the company,” for more than $2.6 million. 

In April, Unicoin said, in a letter to investors, that it rejected a settlement attempt by the SEC after being made aware of the regulatory agency’s probe. The letter claimed that the investigation has racked up “multi-billion dollar damages” to both investors and token holders.

Konanykhin told Decrypt in April that he plans to fight the allegations. There are still a lot of legal processes to go through, but so far it looks like Konanykhin might get his day in court.

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