US prosecutors request 12 years in prison for Terraform’s Do Kwon

U.S. attorneys representing the federal authorities requested at his sentencing listening to subsequent week {that a} decide ship Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to jail for 12 years.

In a submitting Thursday within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, prosecutors requested {that a} decide sentence Kwon “to a time period of 12 years in jail and make ultimate the forfeiture of his legal proceeds.”

The submitting happened 4 months after the Terraform co-founder pleaded responsible to 2 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud.

“In only a few years, Kwon induced losses larger than these of Samuel Bankman-Fried […] Alexander Mashinsky […] and Karl Sebastian Greenwood [….] mixed [emphasis included in filing]“Terraform’s market crash set off a cascade of crises that rippled by the cryptocurrency markets and contributed to what has since grow to be often called ‘Crypto Winter.'”

Supply: Courtroom listener

Kwon, who will probably be sentenced Thursday, was charged by U.S. authorities in March 2023 with fees together with securities fraud, market manipulation, cash laundering and financial institution fraud in connection along with his position at Terraform.

Though his whereabouts had been initially unknown after Terra’s collapse in 2022, authorities in Montenegro arrested him on fees unrelated to his position on the firm, and he was later extradited to the US.

Associated: South Korea is concentrating on crypto transfers below $680 in a sweeping AML transfer

The worth of Terra’s native token, LUNA, rose by greater than 40% within the final 24 hours throughout the publication of the punitive advisory, from roughly $0.07 to $0.10 on the time of publication. Nonetheless, the token reached a document worth of over $19.00 earlier than the ecosystem collapsed in Could 2022.

Kwon says he may nonetheless face jail time in South Korea

In a November lawsuit, legal professionals representing Kwon requested for a jail sentence of as much as 5 years for the Terraform co-founder. His legal professionals made a number of arguments in favor of a shorter sentence, together with that the co-founder may face a 40-year jail sentence in his native South Korea, the place prosecutors are additionally engaged on a case in opposition to him.

“He wouldn’t be capable of stroll out of jail in the US a free man for any size of time: he will probably be taken from no matter facility the place he’s serving his sentence on to an immigration detention heart to await a deportation flight to Seoul, the place he’ll instantly be remanded in custody pending legal fees in South Korea,” Kwon’s legal professionals mentioned.

Whereas Kwon and prosecutors’ respective suggestions will stay into consideration, the decide overseeing the listening to has the authority to condemn the Terraform co-founder to many years in jail, or considerably much less time. In distinction, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year jail sentence following his conviction on seven fees, former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in jail and a decide despatched Karl Sebastian Greenwood to twenty years in jail for his position within the OneCoin scheme.

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