Innovation Insurance Group

  • About
    • Company Profile
      • Annual Reports
        • 2014 Annual Report
        • 2013 Annual Report
    • Ty R. Sagalow
  • Our Services
    • Expert Witness
    • InsurTech
    • Product Development
      • Product Development Case Studies
    • Directors and Officers Insurance
    • Cyber Risk Insurance
    • Bitcoin Insurance Agency
      • BitCoin 101
      • Bitcoins FAQ
      • Bitcoin Video Series
      • Publications and Interviews
  • News
    • Speaking Engagements
    • IIG in the News
    • Bitcoin Industry News
    • Events
    • World Risk and Insurance News
      • Web Series Hosted
        by Ty Sagalow
        • What’s New in Insurance?
        • Innovations in Insurance
      • Interviews of
        Ty Sagalow
    • Gallery
  • Leadership
    • Publications and Interviews
      • Innovation and Product Development
      • D&O Insurance
      • Cyber Risk Insurance
      • Reputation Risk
      • Bitcoin
    • Innovation
    • Emerging Risks
      • InsurTech
      • Reputation Risk
      • Crowdfunding
      • Bitcoin Risk
      • Cyber Risk
    • Thoughts from Industry Leaders
  • Clients
    • Clients
    • Partners
      • Advisen, Ltd.
      • Hanover Stone Partners, LLC
      • CLM Advisors
  • Lemonade Book
    • Book Store – Buy the Book
    • Book Overiew
    • Interviews with the Author
    • Book Signing Gallagy
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Bitcoin Industry News / SEC Charges Unicoin, Top Executives With $100M ‘Massive Securities Fraud’

May 21, 2025

SEC Charges Unicoin, Top Executives With $100M ‘Massive Securities Fraud’

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto company Unicoin and three executives on Tuesday night on fraud charges, saying the company raised over $100 million for tokens that were not actually backed by the real estate its executives claimed.

The SEC sued Unicoin, CEO Alexander Konanykhin, former board chair Maria Moschini, senior vice president and general counsel Richard Devlin and former chief investment officer and investor relations officer Alejandro Dominguez on securities law violations,

Among its allegations, the SEC said Unicoin never actually owned the real estate properties it told investors it had acquired, and that those properties’ values were inflated.

“For example, between September 2023 and January 2024, the Promoting Defendants announced acquisitions of properties in Argentina, Thailand, Antigua, and the Bahamas, purportedly with appraised values totaling more than of $1.4 billion; in fact, the majority of those transactions never closed and the actual combined value of the four properties was no more than $300 million,” the complaint said.

The defendants also “overstated the Company’s sales” of its rights certificates, suggesting in social media posts and to investors that it had raised far more funds than it actually had, the SEC alleged. While Unicoin claimed it had made $3 billion in sales by June 2024, it actually never sold more than $110 million in its rights certificates, according to the complaint.

Moreover, Unicoin advertised its rights certificates, including by promising outsized returns of up to 9 million percent, the SEC alleged, pointing to marketing efforts on taxi cabs, ferries, “office building elevator screens,” digital billboards, coasters, television programs, news websites and public wi-fi kiosks.

A Unicoin taxi cab ad in Manhattan in May 2024. (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

“Additional examples of the Promoting Defendants’ statements include: (a) social media and website posts that touted potential returns of 9,000,000% based on bitcoin’s 9,000,000% growth in the past 10 years and told investors to ‘take advantage of the early days of Unicoin and get them today,’ highlighting that ‘Bitcoin experienced a tremendous rise in value, transforming early adopters into millionaires, and even billionaires,'” the filing said.

Read more: Unicoin CEO: Why Are We Still Under the SEC’s Gun?

Unicoin received a Wells notice from the SEC last December, informing the company that the regulator — then under the leadership of former Chair Gary Gensler — intended to file securities fraud charges. Last month, Konanykhin sent a letter to Unicoin’s shareholders, informing them that the company had rebuffed the SEC’s attempt to settle the charges, rejecting what he described as an “ultimatum” to attend a settlement negotiation meeting by April 18.

“We declined to show up,” Konanykhin told CoinDesk in an April interview, adding that the SEC had made certain pre-meeting demands he deemed “unacceptable” and claiming that the SEC’s probe had caused “multi-billion-dollar damages” to the company.

Read more: Unicoin CEO Reject’s SEC’s Attempt to Settle Enforcement Probe

Neither Konanykhin nor a spokesperson for Unicoin responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment by press time. In a press release shared earlier this year in response to a Wall Street Journal article, a spokesperson said, “Unicoin, the only fully U.S.-registered, U.S.-regulated, U.S.-audited, and U.S.-publicly reporting cryptocurrency company, has consistently complied with all regulations.”

According to court documents, the SEC is seeking disgorgement and civil penalties.

Author: Nikhilesh De

Filed Under: Bitcoin Industry News

Expert Witness

Ty Sagalow head shotTy Sagalow's unique background in legal, underwriting, policy drafting and claims – and his designation as a “qualified insurance expert” by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California – offers attorneys an unparalleled resource in D&O, E&O and Cyber insurance coverage disputes. He was also named "Most Helpful Expert" in a recent $8.7M coverage decision.

Mr. Sagalow served as Chief Underwriting Officer and General Counsel for AIG Executive Liability (formerly National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA), the world’s largest carrier of Directors and Officers Liability and Professional Liability Insurance. As General Counsel, Mr. Sagalow personally wrote or led teams that wrote all the D&O policies and many of the professional liability policies that AIG produced between 1988 and 2000 – policies which continue to serve as the foundational wording for the D&O and professional liability policies in the market today. As AIG Executive Liability’s Chief Underwriting Officer, Mr. Sagalow was charged with all underwriting interpretations and decisions for AIG D&O/E&O policies. In 2009, Mr. Sagalow headed up the team that rewrote all D&O policies for Zurich North America.

Ty is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and holds a LLM from New York University School of Law.

Bitcoin Insurance

Combining his talents as a network security insurance expert and an insurance product development expert, Ty Sagalow is the leading expert on the unique risk and insurance needs of the bitcoin industry.

With the successful sale of BitSecure(tm), the first bitcoin theft insurance policy in February of 2015, he is the first to create a sustainable, robust insurance policy to cover the theft of bitcoins and other virtual currency backed by an A-Rated, global “top 10” Property and Casualty insurance company.

Company Profile

Innovation Insurance Group is an insurance consulting firm and insurance brokerage founded by 30-year insurance executive, Ty R. Sagalow, former Chief Underwriting Officer, General Counsel and Chief Innovation Officer at AIG, and former Chief Innovation Officer at Zurich, NA and Tower Group. IIG focuses on three core practice groups: product development, expert witness services (primarily in the Management and Professional Liability areas), and bitcoin industry brokerage services.

Learn more about Ty R. Sagalow
Learn more about Innovation Insurance Group
Learn more about InsurTech Consulting
Learn more about Bitcoin Insurance Agency

Innovation Insurance Group, LLC BBB Business Review

Featured Topics

  • InsurTech
  • Innovation and Product Development
  • Directors & Officers Liability Insurance
  • Cyber Risk Insurance
  • Reputation Risk
  • Bitcoin Risk and Insurance
  • Emerging Risks
  • Interviews of Ty Sagalow
  • Gallery
  • Testimonials
  • Speaking Engagements

Featured Video Series

  • "What’s New in Insurance with Ty Sagalow"
  • "Innovations in Insurance hosted by
    Ty Sagalow"

Recent Speaking Events

  • Lawline How Is InsurTech Impacting the Insurance Industry? (Update) (8/16/23) (video)
  • The Future of Insurance (with Bryan Falchukc) (Video Podcast Aug 2022)
  • InsurTech Ohio Spotlight with Ty Sagalow (Podcast 5/10/22)
  • Meet the Godfather of Insurtech… (The Insurtech Leadership Podcast)(12/20/21)
  • Why Insurance Industry needs Lemonade Insurance-Style Business Models (Silicon Review, 2019)
  • CIIA Conference: Innovation, Culture and Technology
    May 13, 2021, Chili (Virtual)
  • Latin American Conference New Perspectives and Innovations for the Future of Insurance
    Nov 4, 2019, Mendoza, Argentina
  • All Speaking Engagements
  • 2016 Insurance Consultants Award
    2016 Insurance Consultants Award
  • 2017 Insurance Consultants Award
    2017 Insurance Consultants Award
  • 2017 Insurance Expert Witness of the Year
    2017 Insurance Expert Witness of the Year
  • AI 2017 InsurTech Consultant of the Year Award
    2017 InsurTech Consultant of the Year Award - AI International
  • 2018 Best Advisor Award – M&A Today
    2018 Best Advisor of the Year - M&A Today
  • 2018 Best Consulting Firm – Lawyers International
    2018 Best Consulting Firm - Lawyers International
  • 2018 Best Advisor of the Year - Corporate USA Today
    2018 Best Advisor of the Year - Corporate USA Today
  • 2018 Insuretech Consultant of the Year - Business Excellence
    2018 Insuretech Consultant of the Year - Business Excellence
  • 2019 50th Fasting Growing Company
    2019 50th Fasting Growing Company

Copyright © 2026 Innovation Insurance Group · Offices at Short Hills · 51 John F. Kennedy Parkway, First Floor West · Short Hills, NJ 07078 | Site Map | Log in