Kwon included on Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 Asia list.
NEW YORK: A US court sentenced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to 15 years in jail Thursday for fraud related to his company’s bankruptcy, which wiped out $40 billion in investor funds and rattled global crypto markets.
Kwon, who developed two digital currencies key to the bankruptcy, was sentenced in a New York court after pleading guilty in August following an international investigation spanning Asia and Europe.
He is still facing fraud allegations in his home South Korea.
Terraform Labs, founded by the 34-year-old, invented TerraUSD, a cryptocurrency touted as a “stablecoin,” or a token tied to stable assets such as the US dollar to avoid extreme changes.
Kwon effectively positioned them as the next big thing in cryptocurrency, generating billions of dollars in investment and global attention.
He was hailed as a “genius” by South Korean media, and thousands of private investors lined up to invest in his company.
In 2019, Kwon was named one of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Asia.
Despite billions of dollars in spending, TerraUSD and its sibling coin Luna entered a death spiral in May 2022.
Experts claimed Kwon ran a glorified pyramid scheme in which many investors lost their life savings.
He fled South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run.
The crypto tycoon was apprehended in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, while attempting to board an aircraft to Dubai with a forged Costa Rican passport.
He was extradited last year from Montenegro to the United States.
Following Kwon’s sentencing on Thursday, US prosecutors outlined how he made false representations about his business to attract purchasers, including American investment firms. AFP