WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin mentioned he is requested the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee to drag its investigation towards the crypto operation and hasn’t but acquired a response.
Unicoin represented a closing shot towards the business from earlier Chair Gary Gensler’s SEC, which knowledgeable the agency in an official discover late final yr that the regulator supposed to accuse it of fraud, misleading practices and dealing with unregistered securities. The investigation was introduced within the closing days of President Joe Biden’s administration in December, earlier than the SEC’s management was taken over by these chosen by crypto fan President Donald Trump.
The CEO, who has watched a dozen different crypto corporations let off the hook of their enforcement actions by the company’s new administration, informed CoinDesk he wrote a March 17 letter to the company’s new Crypto Job Power, asking concerning the investigation.
“I search your steering on the easiest way to deal with this abuse of energy and produce it to an finish,” Konanykhin wrote within the letter, a duplicate of which has been reviewed by CoinDesk. He requested the matter be terminated and that the conduct of the enforcement official concerned with the case on the company be reviewed, due to his “willingness to weaponize the SEC’s authority for political functions.”
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to touch upon Unicoin’s standing on Wednesday. A Unicoin spokesperson informed CoinDesk on Tuesday that the corporate “stays within the closing levels of the SEC evaluate course of. As of now, we’ve got not acquired any new updates or formal suggestions from the SEC relating to our registration. We’re absolutely dedicated to compliance and transparency, and we proceed to work towards securing the required approvals for our deliberate choices.”
The CEO believes his firm, which suggests buyers can see as much as 8,000% returns, was focused by company harassment final yr, he mentioned in an interview with CoinDesk in Washington.
“They demanded from us to vow to not go public in the US, to not ICO, to not increase funds,” he mentioned. “So I packed my baggage and moved to Europe to renew enterprise.”
He mentioned the election of Trump and the president’s guarantees to make the U.S. the worldwide crypto capital made him come again to New York from Switzerland, with an intent to go public right here.
“We thought the battle was over, and we mentioned to the SEC, ‘Hey, we’re resuming our exercise,” Konanykhin mentioned. At that time, the company introduced it supposed to focus on the corporate with civil costs.
Konanykhin famous that the regulator had accused them of violating securities legal guidelines with an airdrop. Konanykhin argued that it is a frequent advertising and marketing technique seen in lots of crypto belongings, and is “what the president of the US is doing along with his memecoin.”
“It is embarrassing that the battle on crypto nonetheless continues,” he mentioned. If the company continues its battle on crypto by pursuing Unicoin, “I believe so many observers are going to be astonished.”
Unicoin began as an effort to create a “extra clear and dependable various” to Bitcoin within the U.S. (which, the Unicoin web site mentioned, has returned 9 million p.c to buyers during the last 10 years). He mentioned some analysts imagine bitcoin was “created by Chinese language intelligence, however no one actually is aware of by whom.”
“I am elated by the chance to take part in making American the crypto capital of the planet because the president pledged he desires to do, regardless that it is extremely annoying to nonetheless have the legacy persecution from the SEC,” Konanykhin mentioned.
In the meantime, he mentioned, “we’re getting ready actively for going public.”
