The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has officially called bull on Unicoin. On Tuesday night, the SEC dropped a fraud lawsuit on the crypto firm and three of its top brass, accusing them of raising over $100 million with a pitch that was, how do we put this politely, pure fiction.
According to the SEC, Unicoin’s grand promise? That its tokens were backed by premium real estate. The reality? Not so much. The agency claims the company never actually owned those glamorous global properties it bragged about and that the real values were pumped up bigger than a crypto influencer’s ego.
Inflated Properties and Imaginary Profits
Here’s the kicker: between September 2023 and January 2024, Unicoin’s “Promoting Defendants” hyped up deals in Argentina, Thailand, Antigua, and the Bahamas, claiming a combined appraised value north of $1.4 billion. Turns out, most of those deals were vaporware. The real figure? A much humbler $300 million, give or take.
But wait, there’s more. The SEC alleges Unicoin seriously overcooked the books when it came to sales. While the company boasted about raking in a whopping $3 billion by June 2024, a reality check, actual sales never crossed $110 million.
Marketing Mayhem and 9,000,000% Hype
And how did they market this magical money-maker? Oh, just the usual humble platforms: taxi cabs, elevator screens, ferry ads, coasters, digital billboards, you name it. The pièce de résistance? Promises of 9,000,000% returns, cheekily justified by Bitcoin’s historic climb. Apparently, they wanted investors to believe they’d stumbled into the next crypto gold rush.
One social media gem even encouraged buyers to “take advantage of the early days of Unicoin and get them today,” likening it to being an early Bitcoin adopter. Spoiler: Bitcoin didn’t have SEC fraud charges on its CV.
Defiant CEO, Rejected Settlements, and Legal Fallout
In December, Unicoin got a not-so-friendly Wells notice from the SEC, tipping them off that charges were coming. But instead of playing ball, CEO Alexander Konanykhin went full defiant. In a letter to shareholders, he claimed the SEC’s proposed settlement was an “ultimatum” and bragged, “We declined to show up.”
Konanykhin also told in April that the regulator’s probe had inflicted “multi-billion-dollar damages” on the company. That’s one way to spin it.
Unicoin has tried to paint itself as the good guy in all this, with a spokesperson previously calling it “the only fully U.S.-registered, U.S.-regulated, U.S.-audited, and U.S.-publicly reporting cryptocurrency company.” That may soon come with an asterisk.
Now, the SEC wants the usual payback: disgorgement of funds and civil penalties. Whether Unicoin’s dream ends in fines or flames, one thing’s for sure: it’s been a wild ride through CryptoLand.
Andrew Madison
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