Former Terra CEO Do Kwon Enters Not Guilty Plea In Landmark $40 Billion Crypto Trial
Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, pleaded not guilty to multiple fraud charges in a Manhattan federal court after being extradited from Montenegro. The charges stem from the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna, which lost approximately $40 billion in 2022. A nine-count indictment includes securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Kwon remains in custody, with a hearing scheduled for January 8. In June, he settled with the SEC for $80 million and accepted a ban on cryptocurrency transactions. The indictment alleges Kwon misled investors about TerraUSD's stability and orchestrated a scheme to inflate its price through a trading firm. The collapse of TerraUSD and Luna in May 2022 caused significant losses for investors and impacted the broader cryptocurrency market.
