Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in prison by US judge for Terra/Luna crash case BlockBeats News: On December 12th, the Southern District Federal Court of New York announced on Thursday that Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for multiple fraudulent activities in the TerraUSD (UST) and Luna crashes. The sentence is higher than the 12 years previously recommended by the prosecution and far beyond the 5-year request made by the defense. Judge Paul Engelmayer stated in his sentencing that Kwon "chose to lie and made the wrong decision," causing hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide to lose over $40 billion and triggering the largest stablecoin crash in cryptocurrency history. Do Kwon was criminally charged by US authorities in March 2023, with charges including: ·Conspiracy to commit fraud ·Commodity fraud ·Telecommunications fraud ·Securities fraud ·Conspiracy in market manipulation and money laundering He originally faced nine charges and a maximum sentence of 135 years. In August 2024, Kwon reached a plea agreement with the prosecution and pleaded guilty to two charges of telecommunications fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud, reducing the maximum sentence to 25 years. Nevertheless, the prosecutor emphasized the enormous social harm caused by the Terra/USDT collapse and advocated for Kwon to be sentenced to at least 12 years in prison, while seeking a fine of $19 million. In May 2022, the algorithmic stablecoin UST lost its anchor and quickly collapsed, causing Luna's price to instantly return to zero and the entire ecosystem to evaporate over $40 billion. Both the US SEC and prosecutors have pointed out that Terraform Labs and Kwon made false or misleading statements to investors on multiple key issues, including exaggerating the security of UST's "algorithm stability" mechanism, fabricating Chai payment platform using Terra blockchain settlement, concealing actual control of Mirror Protocol, and attracting users with high-yield product Anchor, but relying on subsidies to maintain operations for a long time. The prosecutor stated outside the court that this case is an important milestone in the history of cryptocurrency fraud enforcement in the United States. According to the verdict arrangement, Kwon must serve at least half of his sentence in the United States before he can apply for transfer to South Korea to continue serving his sentence. He was previously detained and sentenced for 17 months in Montenegro for forging travel documents, which will be counted towards this sentence. South Korea still holds multiple criminal charges against Kwon, and he may continue to face judicial trial in the future.