TerraUSD Creator Do Kwon Sentenced To 15 Years Over $40 Billion Crypto Collapse 30
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, was sentenced in New York federal court on Thursday to 15 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. Kwon, 34, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, previously pleaded guilty and admitted to misleading investors about a coin that was supposed to maintain a steady price during periods of crypto market volatility.
Kwon was one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies. [...] Kwon was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Prosecutors alleged that when TerraUSD slipped below its $1 peg in May 2021, Kwon told investors a computer algorithm known as "Terra Protocol" had restored the coin's value. Instead, Kwon arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price, according to charging documents. "I made false and misleading statements about why it regained its peg by failing to disclose a trading firm's role in restoring that peg," Kwon said in court. "What I did was wrong."
He also faces charges in South Korea, and under his plea deal, prosecutors won't oppose his transfer abroad after he serves half of his U.S. sentence.
Kwon was one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies. [...] Kwon was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Prosecutors alleged that when TerraUSD slipped below its $1 peg in May 2021, Kwon told investors a computer algorithm known as "Terra Protocol" had restored the coin's value. Instead, Kwon arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price, according to charging documents. "I made false and misleading statements about why it regained its peg by failing to disclose a trading firm's role in restoring that peg," Kwon said in court. "What I did was wrong."
He also faces charges in South Korea, and under his plea deal, prosecutors won't oppose his transfer abroad after he serves half of his U.S. sentence.
Trump pardon? (Score:5, Insightful)
"President Trump, do you realize how much I feel like you when they prosecuted you too in New York?"
Re:Trump pardon? (Score:5, Informative)
If he still has enough to grease Donnie's palm a pardon won't be a problem.
Most corrupt administration in my lifetime.
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Pardons have a set price of $1 million. https://thehill.com/homenews/a... [thehill.com]
Re:Trump pardon? (Score:5, Informative)
Are Trump coin purchases able to be tracked? For any other admin in the past century, either party, this pardon is 0%, at least for a decade or so at a minimum but this one, this is easy, 1-in-5 I'm giving this this guy legit gets a pardon in the next 24 months. The President of the United States built himself a bribery system and we're just A-OK with that. Unreal.
And that fucknut Witkoff is Trump's partner in it and is also the guy we have negotiating with Putin while he also represents a number of Russian interests? In a not so different world this alone is impeachable and it's just one of many.
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The Dems should make a lot of noise about this pardon corruption.
It's easy to explain and easy to understand that pay-to-play pardons make a mockery of justice. I think this could cut through similar to the Epstein Files.
And while I am all in for Ukraine, I don't think that this administration's betrayal and, frankly treason, will resonate as much. Fog of war, and a country far, far away, will make this less front and center than these domestic affairs.
I think Epstein, affordability cost and pardon corrupti
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My point is that he will be able to pay for a pardon, just like the Biance guy did:
https://www.politico.com/news/... [politico.com]
Utterly corrupt pay-to-play pardon scheme by this most corrupt administration. Mindboggling how many pardons he already granted.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/08... [cnn.com]
Re:Trump pardon? (Score:5, Insightful)
The crypto thing in general I think is enough it really should be more out in front, it's so blatant, there is zero justifiable reason that venture should exist.
Yeah you're probably right about Ukraine not resonating and it'll always be tied into that now it's really more the fact that even if you support a negotiated end to the war right now the guy doing it is supposed to be representing us and our interests as America and trying to get a fair deal and this guy absolutely has such obvious conflicts of interests all over the place.
It's like how Trump has so many of his own private attorneys acting in official capacities it's unbelievably corrupt.
Also Dems should really be working stuff like this clip of Noem and the deported combat vet. [youtube.com] in front of people whenever possible.
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It’s like pissing in lake Erie. No republicans will break from the cult and vote for impeachment.
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It's "treason" to try to end the war in Ukraine?
There are a million dead Ukrainians and the war is one of attrition (that Ukraine is losing). The choice facing Ukraine is not "win or lose" it's "accept a bad deal now, or accept a worse deal in two more years with another million dead". And no, just sending a few more American missiles there is not going to magically turn the tide of war- just like every other weapons shipment over the past nearly 4 years made no substantial difference to the front lines.
Peo
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It's not treason to try and end the war but the manner and candor about it is pretty disgusting. The constant cowtowing to Putin, the pomp and circumstance of the Alaska summit, the disrespect Putin has shown to the US negotiators, the fact that Russia has broken at least a couple ceasefires that Ukraine agreed to.
Ukraine has been giving the Trump admin concession after concession and Russia has refused or continued bombing pushing the front so much so that remember earlier this year Trump was pleading the
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The Dems should make a lot of noise about this pardon corruption. It's easy to explain and easy to understand that pay-to-play pardons make a mockery of justice.
I don't disagree.
But other than being vocal about it...what recourse is there? Trump does not recognize shame, nor admit wrongdoing in any context, so it's not like he'll ever change his behavior. So what forcing mechanisms are there?
* He's not up for re-election, and so there's no accountability there.
* Congress could try to do something via legislation (e.g., require Presidential divestment into blind trusts), but 1) you'd need a veto-proof majority, which just ain't happening, and 2) would get
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1. Try and charge him with crime. As stupid as the SC immunity ruling is they still left doors open on charging the President or former President. Of course I would say SC reform is much much needed.
2. Still worth doing and if things get bad enough you could get some defectors for such moves.
3. If Trump pardons people you can still try and get them under insurrection under the 14th amendment and bar them from holding future office.
4+5. Yeah, probably should be done but quite a long shot.
Re: How about you grow up? (Score:3)
The trouble with black and white is sometimes you miss the magnitude of difference.
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Nobody will care if Trump pardons that guy. Him being in prison doesn't improve my life even remotely. It doesn't even give me a warm feeling because his victims were all crypto bros.
Re:Trump pardon? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Me and my loved ones are not swapping crypto tokens so there seems to be a fatal flaw in your logic.
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Re: Trump pardon? (Score:1)
What if you had a strong basic income and learned about Caveat Emptor?
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Current Stage: The Great Grift (Score:4, Insightful)
The grand master plan of crypto
The plan for all cryptocurrencies isn't what they want to make you think it is. It's more sinister than the egalitarian image the crypto boys portray for it.
After the 2008 financial meltdown, cryptocurrencies were born out of it, declared to be the means by which people could be freed from banks/governments, and promised to avoid any such future meltdowns from happening ever again.
But the crypto boys watched closely the result of that meltdown, and formulated their plan: create a new form of currency, and for it a new financial system detached from traditional ones (those burdened by "governments and regulations") - they called it "DeFi" for "Decentralized Finance", but its dirty little secret is that it's really "Deregulated Finance".
Their plan is to make this new money be adopted by the masses, so they start it off with a low price, then gradually increase it, by virtue of them just pulling numbers out of thin air for its value, until it catches the attention of the masses - then it gets more and more "valuable" from the collective faith of its given value ("network effect"), until traditional institutions and the typical "1%" billionaires start to notice and, greedy as they are, want in on the action too.
So now those that got in at the ground floor have gained all this "value" out of thin air, and once they're ready, they'll pull out all pretty much at once ("rug pull") - that it'll create a sell-off panic, and a new meltdown is born! And because of their "De[regulated]Fi" system, the bros have already shifted all the risks away from themselves onto others, so they'll make out like bandits, leaving everyone else to "hodl" the bag.
But the bros were really observant about that last meltdown - and noticed all the "bailouts" the big banks got - so as they were shifting the risks to others, they increased their investments into what would get the next bailouts - so in the end they'll make out like bandits twice: the first time from suckering everyone else into their pump-and-dump scam, and again once they benefit from the bailouts that'll get handed out.
And there you have it folks, the real master plan of crypto.
--
"Cryptocurrencies will bring about a worse financial meltdown than the one they were born from." -Prof. Feynman
Re: Current Stage: The Great Grift (Score:1)
Every time crypto comes up why is this exact same thing posted here?
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Every time crypto comes up why is this exact same thing posted here?
It's as old as Slashdot posting shitcoin stories to prop up their own crypto assets [slashdot.org], just like this one and many others [slashdot.org].
Do you hear that? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the sound of Trump's autopen generating another crypto-bro's pardon.
There's a mug born twice every minute /s (Score:2)