TerraUSD: 'Cryptocrash king' Do Kwon pleads guilty to fraud
Kwon's guilty plea in a New York court comes after a lengthy legal battle. He initially fled South Korea after a warrant for his arrest was issued in 2023, eventually ending up in Montenegro where he was arrested and jailed before being extradited to the US.US prosecutors said Kwon misrepresented features that were supposed to keep the so-called stablecoin at $1 without outside intervention.They alleged that in 2021, Kwon arranged for a trading firm to surreptitiously purchase millions of dollars worth of the token to restore TerraUSD's value, even as he told investors that a computer algorithm called Terra Protocol was responsible.Prosecutors say the alleged misrepresentation prompted a wide array of investors to buy Terraform's offerings, which helped prop up the value of the company's Luna token, which was closely linked to TerraUSD.The following year, Kwon's TerraUSD and the Luna cryptocurrency crashed."In 2021, I made false and misleading statements about why [TerraUSD] regained its peg," he said in court on Tuesday."What I did was wrong and I want to apologise for my conduct," he added.Kwon had originally pleaded not guilty to nine counts stemming from the crash, including securities and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.He had faced up to 135 years in prison if convicted of the charges in the original indictment.As part of his plea deal, Kwon agreed to refrain from challenging the allegations in the indictment. He must also forfeit up to $19.3m plus interest and several properties and pay restitution.While prosecutors have agreed to limit their requested sentence to 12 years, Judge Paul Engelmayer maintained that he was entitled to prescribe a longer sentence.That sentence could be up to 25 years in prison.He still faces charges in South Korea, according to his attorney.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Priscilla Presley's ex-business partners sue her for more than $50 million, alleging fraud
Priscilla Presley's former business partners have filed a lawsuit seeking more than $50 million in damages, alleging fraud and breach of contract. Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko filed the lawsuit Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Among many other allegations, they say Presley used them to financially exploit her name, image and likeness, hiding the fact that she had sold those rights decades earlier. The lawsuit comes just over a year after Presley, the 80-year-old former wife of Elvis Presley, sued Kruse and Fialko, alleging they engaged in elder abuse in a 'meticulously planned and abhorrent scheme' to 'prey on an older woman by gaining her trust, isolating her from the most important people in her life, and duping her into believing that they would take care of her (personally and financially), while their real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had.' Kruse and Fialko's lawyer, Jordan Matthews, said in a statement Wednesday that the 'evidence will establish that the real victims here are my clients, who invested millions and years of hard work into revitalizing Priscilla Presley's brand, only to be betrayed and falsely accused once the money was on the table and every personal and business issue had been resolved.' An email seeking comment from Presley's lawyer was not immediately answered. Kruse and Fialko's lawsuit says Kruse is a well-known auctioneer and Fialko a successful entrepreneur, both of whom dealt in Elvis Presley memorabilia. The duo previously sued Priscilla Presley in Florida. They say she approached them in 2021 looking for help to save her from financial ruin, which they spent thousands of hours working to do. 'Kruse and Fialko deployed IP, know-how and creative marketing to enhance Priscilla's brand,' the lawsuit said, and formed several companies to exploit her name, image and likeness. But they say as this was happening, Presley hid from them that she had sold the rights to license her name as part of a $6.5 million deal with Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2005. The lawsuit says that when confronted about the previous agreement, Presley repeatedly denied making it, and later said she had forgotten about it when confronted with evidence of it. The lawsuit also alleges Presley sought to take advantage of the 2023 death of her daughter and Elvis Presley's heir, Lisa Marie Presley, to aggrandize herself and regain a stake in the Elvis' estate. Priscilla and Elvis Presley were married from 1967 to 1973, divorcing four years before the death of the rock 'n' roll legend. Kruse and Fialko say they brokered a 2023 deal to end a legal fight over the estate between Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley's daughter, actor Riley Keough, getting Priscilla Presley $2.4 million. But the lawsuit says she cut them off in violation of contracts soon after, publicly smeared them and later sued them. Priscilla Presley's lawsuit says that Kruse and Fialko fraudulently convinced her they were essential to her recovering financially, and that her former trusted advisers had been cheating her. It said they compelled her to take part in sham companies, lost control of her name, image and likeness, and forced her into 'a form of indentured servitude.' 'By isolating her and immersing themselves in every aspect of her life, the Defendants were able to fraudulently induce Presley into giving them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts, and control over her bank accounts," the lawsuit said. Priscilla became a major public figure when she was a teenager because of her relationship with one of the world's most famous men. She never left the public eye, but she has regained a special prominence in recent years through Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film 'Elvis' and Sofia Coppola's 2023 film 'Priscilla,' based on her memoir. She is also an actor who starred in the original 'Naked Gun' franchise in the 1980s and 1990s, and she had a cameo in the new reboot.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Olam Group's first-half profit soars on higher food ingredients prices
Aug 14 (Reuters) - Singapore's Olam Group ( opens new tab reported a near seven-fold jump in first-half earnings on Thursday, primarily driven by strong performance at its food ingredients division due to higher average sales price. Olam, one of the world's biggest agricultural commodity traders, has been ramping up efforts to unlock value through a stake sale in Olam Agri to Saudi Arabia's agricultural and livestock investment firm, SALIC. It is also looking to demerge and list its food ingredients business, Ofi. "Pursuant to the proposed sale of Olam Agri to SALIC and the plan to responsibly divest the assets and businesses of the remaining Olam Group, our focus is to prioritise Ofi and support its efforts in realising its full potential value," said CEO Sunny Verghese. Ofi, a diversified food and beverage platform, reported revenue of S$14.7 billion ($11.49 billion) in the six months to June 30, around 52% higher than last year, with operating earnings jumping 13% to S$535.8 million. That boosted the group's reported profit attributable to S$323.8 million for the first half of 2025, compared with S$48 million a year earlier. It declared an interim dividend of 2 Singapore cents per share. ($1 = 1.2795 Singapore dollars)
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Singapore's Temasek prices $1.5 billion US dollar fixed and floating-rate bonds
Aug 14 (Reuters) - Singapore's state investor Temasek [RIC:RIC: said on Thursday its unit priced two U.S. dollar-denominated bonds totaling $1.5 billion, a day after launching the offer under its $25 billion medium-term note program. The unit, Temasek Financial (I), priced two $750 million two-year bonds, one with a 3.75% fixed rate and the other priced at a spread of 38 basis points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the state investor said in a filing, opens new tab on the Singapore Exchange. The unit intends to use the net proceeds from the bond issuance to support Temasek and its investment holding companies in funding their ordinary course of business, the company said. Citi (C.N), opens new tab, Bank of America (BAC.N), opens new tab, Morgan Stanley (MS.N), opens new tab and Societe Generale ( opens new tab are the joint bookrunners.
