The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against New York-based crypto exchange Unicoin, along with several top executives, alleging a scheme to defraud investors through misleading claims tied to the sale of rights certificates and company stock.

The SEC has accused Unicoin of falsely claiming to have raised over $3 billion through its rights certificate offerings. In reality, the agency claimed the company raised no more than $110 million from investors.

Deceptive Crypto Investment Campaign

According to a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, the SEC accused CEO and Chairman Alex Konanykhin, former president and board chairwoman Silvina Moschini, former Chief Investment Officer Alex Dominguez, and general counsel Richard Devlin of orchestrating or facilitating deceptive promotional campaigns that resulted in over 5,000 individuals purchasing rights certificates marketed as access to “asset-backed” Unicoin tokens.

Promotional materials, widely circulated through high-profile advertising in airports, taxis, television, and social media, portrayed these rights certificates as secure and lucrative investments linked to crypto assets allegedly backed by billions of dollars in real estate and equity holdings in private companies.

However, the SEC argued that Unicoin’s actual holdings represented only a small fraction of those claims.

In an official statement, Mark Cave, Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said,

“We allege that Unicoin and its executives exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens, when issued, would be backed by real-world assets including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings.”

False Claims of Regulatory Compliance

Unicoin and its executives also reportedly misled investors by claiming the offerings were registered with the SEC or were otherwise compliant with US regulations, which they were not.

The securities agency further alleges that Konanykhin personally sold nearly 38 million rights certificates, including to investors that Unicoin had initially excluded to maintain a registration exemption, which violated securities laws governing unregistered offerings. All four individuals are charged with antifraud violations, with Unicoin and Konanykhin also facing charges related to unregistered securities sales.

As such, the SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, as well as prohibiting the three executives from serving as officers or directors of public companies. Additionally, Devlin, the company’s general counsel, has agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations. His settlement includes a permanent injunction and a $37,500 civil penalty for negligently making misleading statements in private placement documents.

Konanykhin wrote in an April 3 Miami Herald opinion piece that the SEC informed Unicoin in December of planned fraud charges. However, he “vehemently refuted” the claims.

The U.K. needs to work harder at becoming a global center for the crypto industry to avoid falling behind countries like the U.S., industry executives told CNBC.

The country has been saying it wants to be a crypto hub since 2022, before the current Labour government was elected, yet only this week did it start seeking comments on draft legislation for the industry.

The European Union, meanwhile, has already implemented its Markets in Crypto Assets legislation (MiCA), which provides a uniform regime across the bloc, and the new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump is promoting the industry and relaxing regulation.

“If I look at the speed of innovation, I do feel that the U.S. is ahead — although they have their own challenges. But look at Singapore, Hong Kong — again, you see much more rapid innovation,” Jaidev Janardana, the CEO of digital bank Zopa, told CNBC. “I think we are still ahead of the EU, but we can’t remain complacent with that.”

Trump, for his part, has been urging departments to make crypto-friendly policies, and stablecoin legislation is working its way through the Senate. The stablecoin sector could surge 10-fold to reach $2 trillion within three years following the passage of the legislation, Standard Chartered has forecast.

“Other jurisdictions have started to seize the opportunity,” said Cassie Craddock, the managing director for U.K. and Europe at blockchain firm Ripple, in an interview with CNBC.

Mark Fairless, CEO of payments infrastructure firm ClearBank, said his business has been looking to develop its own stablecoin and has been held back by the lack of regulatory clarity.

Stablecoins are “part of our medium-term, longer-term strategy,” Fairless told CNBC. “We see ourselves well set up for that.” However, he added, a ClearBank stablecoin will be possible only once there’s clarity from U.K. regulators including the Bank of England.

Still, the country hasn’t entirely missed the bus.

“The U.K. is still that great place to set up. We have all the ingredients there, because we’ve got the ecosystem, we do have this talent setting up new businesses,” Lisa Jacobs, CEO of business lending platform Funding Circle, said. “But it needs to continue. We can’t rest on our laurels.”

“I think the U.K. will get it right — but there is a risk if you get it wrong that you drive innovation to other markets,” Keith Grose, Coinbase’s U.K. head, told CNBC.

Read more: The UK Has Created Crypto Banking Problems