The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Alexandre Konanykhin, the founder of Unicoin, with securities fraud for allegedly defrauding more than 5,000 investors by inflating the value of his company's cryptocurrency tokens. The alleged scheme involved $110 million—far less than the $3 billion Konanykhin claimed to have raised.
A Bounty on Putin and a Crypto Scam
Konanykhin, a 58-year-old Russian-born businessman, gained notoriety in February 2022 when he posted a $1 million bounty on Facebook for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'Wanted dead or alive, Vladimir Putin, for mass murder,' the post read. That same period, he launched Unicoin, a cryptocurrency that was supposedly backed by real estate and equity stakes in pre-IPO companies featured on his TV show Unicorn Hunters.
According to the SEC complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Konanykhin and his executive team—including former president Silvina Moschini and former chief investment officer Alex Dominguez—aggressively promoted Unicoin through television ads, social media, taxi cabs, and airport billboards. They told investors that the tokens were 'rights certificates' backed by billions of dollars in real estate and equity interests, when in reality the underlying assets were worth a tiny fraction of that amount.
From Oligarch to Fugitive to Entrepreneur
Konanykhin's past is riddled with legal battles. A former KGB-era banking oligarch, he amassed a $300 million fortune by age 25 and became part of Boris Yeltsin's inner circle. In 1992, he claimed he was kidnapped by the KGB while on a business trip in Hungary, escaped to the United States, and filed for asylum. He was jailed twice for U.S. immigration law violations before finally winning the right to stay in the country. After rebuilding his life, he launched several startups, including Transparent Business, a holding company that created Unicorn Hunters, a Shark Tank-style show featuring celebrity investors like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Unicoin was designed to hold equity in the companies featured on the show and to pay dividends to token holders. The website boasted: 'A company backed by real assets. This is your chance to enter early, before valuations rise and market momentum takes over.'
SEC Steps In; Konanykhin Vows to Fight
The SEC claims that Unicoin sold millions of dollars worth of unregistered securities to more than 5,000 investors while falsely claiming to have registered with the regulator. Associate Director Mark Cave stated: 'We allege that Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens 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.'
Konanykhin responded on X: 'The SEC’s allegations are blatantly false. We intend to prove in court that they constitute yet another case of gross abuse of power. We will fight for our vision, for our community, and for the legacy of transparency we are building…We will not back down.' The case is ongoing.