Crypto platform Unicoin has pushed back against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s $100 million fraud lawsuit, accusing the agency of misrepresenting its regulatory filings.
In a filing to a New York federal court on Wednesday, Unicoin argued that the SEC’s claims “cherry-pick communications and distort their meaning and context, treat ordinary financial projections and optimism as fraud, and ignore Unicoin’s clear risk disclosures.”
The company added, “Most remarkably, the SEC twists disclosures from Unicoin’s own filings and falsely presents them as evidence of deception.”
The SEC filed the lawsuit in May, targeting Unicoin, CEO Alex Konanykhin, board member Silvina Moschini, and former investment chief Alex Dominguez, alleging they raised $100 million by misleading investors about certificates granting rights to Unicoin tokens and stock.
Unicoin argues SEC must meet a higher standard of proof
Unicoin contended that the SEC’s claims were pieced together and that the allegation of securities law violations lacked sufficient evidence.
“Securities fraud requires more—it demands a false statement made with scienter that reasonable investors would have relied upon,” the company stated. “Here, the very risks the SEC points to were disclosed openly and repeatedly, meaning those elements cannot be established.”
Unicoin described the SEC’s lawsuit as a “shotgun pleading,” arguing it failed to establish a motive for the company’s alleged actions and relied on circumstantial evidence, “semantics, and mischaracterizations of statements taken wholly out of context.”
SEC Accuses Unicoin of Misleading Investors
The SEC alleged that Unicoin misrepresented the backing of its forthcoming token and rights certificates, claiming they were supported by billions in real-world assets, including real estate and pre-IPO equity. According to the regulator, the assets were actually worth only a fraction of what the company claimed, and Unicoin misrepresented its financial position.
The agency further alleged that Unicoin falsely reported selling more than $3 billion in rights certificates when only $110 million had been sold, and misrepresented the tokens and certificates as SEC-registered.
Unicoin Pushes Back
In response, Unicoin argued that the SEC’s claims about misleading investors regarding token backing relied on statements “taken wholly out of context,” noting that executives had said the company—not the upcoming tokens—was asset-backed.
The company added, “At no point did any Defendant claim that unicoins would function as a fully collateralized investment.” It noted the tokens had not yet been created and accused the SEC of targeting “forward-looking expressions of optimism.”
Unicoin also said the SEC’s lawsuit has prevented it from minting tokens and backing them with assets, while simultaneously seeking to hold the company liable for failing to create tokens fully collateralized by real-world assets. The company added that the SEC conflated deal and property values in real estate transactions, some of which were still pending closure.
Unicoin requested that the court dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit with prejudice, barring the agency from re-filing the complaint.
