On 20 May 2025, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) filed a Complaint No. 1:25-cv-04245 demanding jury trial before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Unicoin, Inc. (formerly TransparentBusiness, Inc.) and its senior leadership. The complaint, SEC v. Unicoin, Inc. f/k/a TransparentBusiness, Inc., et al., names Alexander Konanykhin (CEO and Board Chairman), Silvina Moschini (former president and current board member), Alejandro Dominguez (former Chief Investment Officer), and Richard Devlin (General Counsel) as defendants. The US SEC alleges that Unicoin and its executives engaged in a large-scale fraudulent offering that raised over $100 million from more than 5,000 investors by marketing rights certificates falsely portrayed as asset-backed crypto instruments.
According to the US SEC’s complaint, between February 2022 and May 2025 (the “Relevant Period”), Unicoin and its top executives allegedly launched an extensive, global campaign to market “Unicoin Rights Certificates,” which purportedly conveyed rights to receive digital tokens, or “Unicoins,” upon their future issuance. These certificates were heavily promoted as being backed by billions of dollars in real estate and equity interests in pre-IPO companies, and as being “SEC-registered” and “SEC-compliant.” The US SEC alleges that these representations were false and materially misleading. In truth, Unicoin’s actual assets were worth a small fraction of the advertised figures, and neither the certificates nor the underlying tokens were registered with the US SEC.
The complaint further alleges that Unicoin used deceptive advertising including placements in New York airports, on taxi cabs, and via television and social media platforms, to lure investors into purchasing what were characterised as safe, stable, and high-growth crypto investments. Throughout the Relevant Period, the US SEC claims Unicoin allegedly reported inflated sales figures, at one point falsely claiming $3 billion in sales, when actual proceeds never exceeded $110 million.
The US SEC has charged Unicoin and its principal executives with violations of the antifraud provisions of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Specifically, Unicoin and Konanykhin are accused of violating Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the United States Securities Act, as well as Section 10(b) and US SEC Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. Konanykhin is also charged under Section 20(a) of the United States Exchange Act as a control person. Moschini and Dominguez are similarly charged with fraudulent misstatements, and Devlin is charged with violations of Sections 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act for negligent misrepresentations in private placement memoranda.
The US SEC seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, civil monetary penalties, and officer-and-director bars against Konanykhin, Moschini, and Dominguez. Devlin has agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations, consenting to a permanent injunction and the payment of a $37,500 civil penalty.
Mark Cave, Associate Director in the US SEC’s Division of Enforcement stated: “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, but as we allege, the real estate assets were worth a mere fraction of what the company claimed, and the majority of the company’s sales of rights certificates were illusory. Unicoin’s most senior executives are alleged to have perpetuated the fraud, and today’s action seeks accountability for their conduct.”
The US SEC’s investigation was conducted by Adam B. Gottlieb, Jason D. Schall, and Joss Berteaud, under the supervision of W. Bradley Ney and Mark Cave. Litigation is led by Russell J. Feldman and Adam B. Gottlieb, and supervised by Jack Kaufman.
(Source: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025-75)
