What to KnowSouth Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Hyeong Kwon pleaded not responsible Thursday to a freshly unsealed indictment launched in time for his first U.S. court docket look.Kwon entered the plea in Manhattan federal court docket two days after his extradition from Montenegro.The indictment alleges that the person dubbed by some as “the cryptocurrency king” lied to buyers from 2018 to 2022 to idiot them into pouring cash into Terraform Labs, the Singapore crypto agency he cofounded.
South Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Hyeong Kwon pleaded not responsible Thursday to a freshly unsealed indictment launched in time for his first U.S. court docket look.
Kwon entered the plea in Manhattan federal court docket two days after his extradition from Montenegro.
The indictment alleges that the person dubbed by some as “the cryptocurrency king” lied to buyers from 2018 to 2022 to idiot them into pouring cash into Terraform Labs, the Singapore crypto agency he cofounded.
Authorities say buyers worldwide have been harmed by the $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency.
The Might 2022 collapse got here regardless of the corporate’s declare that TerraUSD was a “stablecoin” that could possibly be relied upon.
Kwon didn’t communicate throughout his court docket look, besides to acknowledge that he understood English. His lawyer, Andrew Chesley, entered not responsible pleas to 2 separate variations of the indictment charging him with conspiracy, together with commodities, securities and wire fraud. A cash laundering cost was added Thursday.
Chesley and one other protection lawyer, David Patton, declined remark as they emerged from the courtroom. Their consumer was returned to a federal jail after the legal professionals consented to his detention.
The superseding indictment accused Kwon of deceiving buyers by telling them that Terraform had developed novel dependable monetary applied sciences enabling it to show blockchain know-how right into a self-contained decentralized monetary world with its personal cash, fee system, inventory market and financial savings financial institution.
“In fact,” the indictment mentioned, “Kwon’s constructed financial world was built on lies and manipulative and deceptive techniques used to mislead investors, users, business partners, and government regulators” about Terraform’s enterprise.
“Behind the scenes, core Terraform products did not work as Kwon advertised, and were manipulated to create the illusion of a functioning and decentralized financial system in order to lure investors,” it added.
