A US federal court meted out a 15-year jail term to disgraced South Korean crypto mogul Kwon Do-hyeong in a trial over a crypto crash that resulted in over $40 billion in losses to investors in the United States and around the world in 2022, according to a report by the Associated Press on Thursday.
Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, the parent firm of crashed TerraUSD and Luna coins, was charged with being involved in schemes to deceive investors to inflate the value of the cryptocurrencies. In August, he pleaded guilty to two criminal counts -- conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud.
In January, the Justice Department alleged, citing his indictment, that Kwon had made false and misleading claims about the stability and efficacy of Terraform's cryptocurrency stablecoin protocol and its use of blockchain technology, among other things.
The department said that if convicted of all of his initial nine charges, including money laundering conspiracy, he could face a maximum penalty of 130 years in prison.
Under a plea deal, US prosecutors are to support Kwon serving the second half of his sentence in South Korea provided that he complies with his end of the deal.
Kwon was extradited to the US from Montenegro in December, where he was arrested in March 2023 while traveling on a fake passport. (Yonhap)
