Terraform co-founder Do Kwon pleaded guilty to charges in a US fraud prosecution tied to the $US40 billion ($61 billion) collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022.
Kwon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud under an agreement with prosecutors at a hearing in New York on Tuesday. The 33-year-old, dressed in a yellow prison jumpsuit, also agreed to forfeit $US19.3 million and some properties as part of the plea deal.
Do Kwon, 33, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Terraform Labs.Credit: Bloomberg
“I knowingly agreed with others to defraud, and did in fact defraud, purchasers of cryptocurrencies issued by my company, Terraform Labs,” Kwon said, reading from a statement. “What I did was wrong and I want to apologise for my conduct. I take full responsibility.”
Kwon was charged in both South Korea and the US in connection with the implosion of Singapore-based Terraform’s TerraUSD, which shook the crypto world in 2022 and helped trigger the meltdown of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The guilty plea averts a trial set for next year before US District Judge Paul Engelmayer.
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He was charged in 2023 and was extradited to the US in January, after spending almost two years in Montenegro, where he’d been arrested and convicted of using a phony passport while a fugitive from charges in his native South Korea.
US prosecutors said the longest sentence they will seek under the plea deal is 12 years. The maximum US sentences are five years for the conspiracy count and 20 years for the wire fraud charge.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 11. He had faced nine charges under the indictment.
