cryptOH NO

Do Kwon was 100% absolutely not doing anything illegal!!!

Author

Amber Rhodes
January 8th, 2025

Do Hyeong Kwon, former CEO of Terraform Labs and fallen crypto bro, faces up to 130 years in prison for his role in defrauding investors out of $40 billion. 

Woof.

Here’s the lowdown (and don’t worry, I won’t pretend to understand, or care about, cryptocurrency):

Have you witnessed a founder behaving badly? The tip line is now open 📞 

Terraform Labs was founded in 2018 and soon released a cryptocurrency called Luna. In 2020 – a.k.a. the dark times – the company launched TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin. 

Both currencies crashed in May of 2022, basically hitting $0, and lost a lot of money. This resulted in class action lawsuits filed against Terraform Labs in South Korea, the US, and Singapore.

Soon after, Do Kwon went on a little…vacation… 

He definitely wasn’t hiding out from authorities or anything, no way!

would a guilty person say this??

At this point, the Korean government filed a notice with Interpol seeking his arrest and return to Korea. (Again, totally not suspicious!) 

And soon after, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Kwon with fraud.

"We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for LUNA and Terra USD. We also allege that they committed fraud by repeating false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating losses for investors."

SEC Chair, Gary Gensler

Kwon was eventually arrested in Montenegro in 2023 – definitely not on the run!!!! – with a fake passport trying to travel to a country without an extradition treat with the US. Montenegro held Kwon as the US and South Korea requested his extradition. 

Extradition was granted to the US on New Year’s Eve (happy new year?), and Kwon officially pleaded “not guilty” in a Manhattan court on January 2, 2025. 

The delulu is strong with this one 🙏

If you’re really curious, you can read the unsealed 79-page indictment of Kwon here. 

Stay safe out there, folks!

Hey, I’m Amber! I’m a freelance content marketer/consultant and aspiring humorist. You can find me on LinkedIn, Medium, Bluesky, and my website. If you really like what I’m doing, you can buy me a coffee.

Need a pick-me-up? Check out my satirical news site: The B2B Bulletin.

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