Do Kwon was arrested in March this year. (Reuters File Photo)
Do Kwon, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion or more last year, has been sentenced to four-month jail in Montenegro. According to the BBC, he was found guilty of forging official documents. Kwon was arrested in March and charged with fraud. His indictment charged Kwon with two counts each of securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy. He also faces charges in the US and South Korea over the collapse of the two digital tokens last year.
Kwon and his associates marketed the two cryptocurrencies – TerraUSD and Luna – pegged to US dollars, claiming they are stable. But they collapsed in May 2022 and took many of their investors’ savings with them.
South Korea first announced an arrest warrant against Kwon and five of his associates in September last year, but he had already fled to Singapore along with his family.
Interpol issued a red notice against him at the request of Korean authorities. Montenegrin authorities cited this as another reason for arresting Kwon.
As per the BBC report, the former finance officer of Kwon’s company Terraform Labs was also sentenced to four months in prison after being found guilty of the same charges.
The court said that the prison sentence will include the time that Kwon has already spent in jail. It has also allowed the disgraced cryptocurrency boss and his finance officer to file an appeal within eight days of receiving written notification from the court.
“The verdict will be written and delivered to the parties within the legal term of 30 (thirty) days, and the dissatisfied party has the right to appeal within eight days from the day of receipt of the written copy of the verdict,” the court said in a statement.