Unicoin CEO Rejects SEC’s Attempt to Settle Enforcement Probe

Unicoin has rebuffed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) try to negotiate a settlement settlement to shut an ongoing probe into the Miami-based crypto firm, its CEO Alex Konanykhin revealed in a Tuesday letter to buyers.

In his letter, Konanykhin mentioned Unicoin was given an “ultimatum” by the SEC to attend a settlement negotiation assembly final week, on April 18.

“We declined to show up,” Konanykhin informed CoinDesk, including that the SEC had made calls for forward of the assembly that he discovered “unacceptable.” He declined to share specifics, telling CoinDesk that the communication between Unicoin’s legal professionals and the SEC was confidential.

Unicoin obtained a Wells discover — a type of official heads-up from the SEC that it intends to file an enforcement motion towards the recipient — in December, shortly earlier than former Chair Gary Gensler stepped down, alleging violations associated to fraud, misleading practices, and the supply and sale of unregistered securities. No official enforcement motion has but been filed.

Since President Donald Trump took workplace, the SEC has reversed its once-aggressive stance towards crypto regulation, backing off from lots of its open investigations into crypto corporations, together with blockchain gaming agency Immutable and non-fungible token (NFT) market OpenSea, and even a few of its ongoing litigation, together with towards Coinbase and Cumberland DRW.

Other SEC enforcement circumstances towards crypto corporations, together with its circumstances towards Binance and Tron, have been paused whereas the events try to negotiate a settlement. The company just lately reached a settlement settlement with Nova Labs, the guardian firm behind the Helium blockchain, that noticed Nova Labs pay a $200,000 nice to settle civil securities fraud costs, and the SEC dropped its claims that Helium (HNT) and different associated tokens have been securities.

In his letter to buyers, Konanykhin claimed that the SEC’s probe has brought on “multi-billion-dollar damage” to the corporate and its buyers.

“We would likely be a $10B+ publicly traded company by now if the SEC had not blocked our ICO, stock exchange listing and fundraising,” Konanykhin wrote, including that the SEC had prevented Unicoin from appearing on the “very favorable market opportunities.”

“We were forced into a standstill,” Konanykhin wrote.

The SEC didn’t reply to a request for remark.