U.S. court sentences Terra-Luna incident founder Kwon Do-hyung to 15 years in prison

2025-12-12 01:29:02

Source: DigitalToday Original Title: US Court Sentences Do Kwon to 15 Years in Prison Over Terra-Luna Collapse Original Link:

Founder of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, who caused $40 billion in damages during the Terra-Luna crash in 2022, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a U.S. court.

The Southern District Court of New York on the 11th (local time) stated that Do Kwon “deliberately lied and made wrong choices,” imposing a sentence exceeding the prosecution’s recommended 12 years.

Kwon was indicted last March on charges including fraud, market manipulation conspiracy, commodities and securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. In August, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud, facing a maximum sentence of 25 years. This ruling confirms a prison term of 15 years out of those charges.

The problematic TerraUSD was a stablecoin attempting to maintain its value through an algorithmic mechanism, linked to the Luna (LUNA) token. However, due to system flaws, its price plummeted sharply, leading to the collapse of multiple cryptocurrency companies and being termed the “Lehman Brothers event of the digital asset market.” Prosecutors accused Kwon of concealing the risks and structural vulnerabilities.

Kwon’s side argued that some institutional investors’ coordinated sell-offs and market structural factors should be taken into account for leniency, but this was not accepted. Prosecutors also demanded the confiscation of assets worth $19 million from Kwon.

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