The U.S. SEC Charges Unicoin Top Executives with Fraud of Over $100M

On Tuesday, May 20th, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Unicoin, Inc., and three of the company’s top executives with fraud involving more than $100 million.

The three executives that are charged are CEO and Board Chairman Alex Konanykhin, Silvina Moschini, former president, former board chairwoman, current board member, and former Chief Investment Officer Alex Dominguez.

The SEC stated that the company used false and misleading statements to offer certificates to more than 5,000 investors, which implies that the investors have the right to receive crypto assets called Unicoin tokens and an offering of Unicoin, Inc.’s common stock.

However, the company’s claims that the Unicorn tokens are backed by assets worth billions of dollars are unfounded and deceptive. In fact, Unicoin’s assets are only worth a small fraction of that amount.

In addition, the NYC-based company sold more than $3 billion in rights certificates while raising only $110 or below. Also, the assertion that Unicoin’s rights certificates and tokens were “SEC-registered” or “U.S. registered” is untrue.

“We allege that Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens, when issued, would be backed by real-world assets including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings,”

Mark Cave, Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said.

Unicoin and Its Executives Violate the Federal Securities Laws

Additionally, the SEC’s complaint affirmed that Unicoin and Alex Konanykhin, CEO and Board Chairman, violated the federal securities laws by engaging in unregistered offers and sales of rights certificates.

Notably, Konanykhin also sold over 37.9 million of his rights certificates to investors who Unicorn restrained from participating in the offering.

“The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against Unicoin, Konanykhin, Moschini, and Dominguez, as well as officer-and-director bars against Konanykhin, Moschini, and Dominguez,”

the SEC stated.

Similarly, the SEC also charged Richard Devlin, Unicoin’s general counsel, with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

Devlin was accused of promoting a false statement in a private placement memorandum used by Unicoin to offer and sell rights certificates and Unicoin common stock.

Devlin has agreed to the entry of a final judgment providing permanent injunctive relief and ordering him to pay a $37,500 civil penalty.The SEC’s complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.