South Korean ‘cryptocrash king’ Do Kwon jailed for forged passports

Police in Montenegro arrested Kwon in March when he was attempting to travel to Dubai
TerraUSD stablecoin founder Do Kwon has been sentenced to four months in jail for forging official documents
Terraform Labs
Saqib Shah21 June 2023

Do Kwon, the crypto boss wanted by international police for a collapse that took £31.3 billion from investors, has been sentenced to four months in jail in Montenegro.

Kwon and his businesses partner Chang-joon Han were found guilty of forging official documents, including passports and identity cards.

The “cryptocrash king” is also wanted by authorities in the US and South Korea over the collapse of two digital tokens last year.

Montenegrin police arrested Kwon and Han at Podgorica Airport in March while they were attempting to travel to Dubai with the allegedly forged documents.

Kwon and Han pleaded not guilty at their first court hearing in May. The sentences will include the time that the pair have already spent in detention after their arrest in March, the court said.

They will also be able to appeal against the verdict within eight days of receiving written notification from the court.

Kwon founded Terraform Labs in 2018 and created the Terra USD stablecoin and Luna token, both of which plummeted in May 2022 after losing their peg to the US dollar.

The resulting downturn wiped their $45bn (£31.3bn) market cap in a matter of hours. It triggered a domino effect that destabilised several financial firms with exposure to the tokens.

South Korea issued an arrest warrant against Kwon and five associates last September, but he had already fled to Singapore, where his company had registered.

Interpol then put Kwon on the "red notice" list at the request of Korean authorities, initiating a worldwide search for his whereabouts.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Kwon in February with securities fraud for allegedly running a "multi-billion-dollar" crypto asset scheme.

"We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for LUNA and Terra USD," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said at the time. "We also allege that they committed fraud by repeating false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating losses for investors."

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