(BBC News) A South Korean former tech executive accused of helping to spark a cryptocurrency crisis that cost investors more than $40 billion has pleaded guilty to two criminal counts of fraud.
Do Kwon was the boss of Singapore-based Terraform Labs, which operated two cryptocurrencies – TerraUSD and Luna – both of which collapsed in 2022, triggering a wider selloff in the crypto market.
The US says he was responsible for the failure of the two digital currencies, accusing him of “orchestrating a multi-billion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud.”
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors have agreed to refrain from seeking a sentence longer than 12 years. Kwon is due to be sentenced on December 11.
Kwon’s guilty plea in a New York court comes after a lengthy legal battle.
He initially fled South Korea after a warrant for his arrest was issued in 2023, eventually ending up in Montenegro, where he was arrested and jailed before being extradited to the US.
US prosecutors said Kwon misrepresented features that were supposed to keep the so-called stablecoin at $1 without outside intervention.
They alleged that in 2021 Kwon arranged for a trading firm to surreptitiously purchase millions of dollars worth of the token to restore TerraUSD’s value, even as he told investors that a computer algorithm called Terra Protocol was responsible.
Prosecutors say the alleged misrepresentation prompted a wide array of investors to buy Terraform’s offerings, which helped prop up the value of the company’s Luna token, which was closely linked to TerraUSD.
The following year, Kwon’s TerraUSD and the Luna cryptocurrency crashed.
“In 2021, I made false and misleading statements about why [TerraUSD] regained its peg,” he said in court on Tuesday.
“What I did was wrong and I want to apologize for my conduct,” he added.
Kwon had originally pleaded not guilty to nine counts stemming from the crash, including securities and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.
He had faced up to 135 years in prison if convicted of the charges in the original indictment.
As part of his plea deal, Kwon agreed to refrain from challenging the allegations in the indictment.
He must forfeit up to $19.3 million plus interest and several properties, and pay restitution.
While prosecutors have agreed to limit their requested sentence to 12 years, Judge Paul Engelmayer maintained that he was entitled to prescribe a longer sentence.
That sentence could be up to 25 years in prison.
He still faces charges in South Korea, according to his attorney.
