TerraUSD creator Do Kwon has been sentenced to 15 years in a US prison for his role in a crypto fraud that led to a $40 billion market crash, UNN reports, citing AP.
The sentencing came after several victims told the court how the collapse of Kwon’s project destroyed their savings and affected their families. One victim wrote that he even considered suicide after his father lost his retirement money.
Kwon, 34, once praised as a young fintech star, apologised in court. He said hearing from victims “reminded me again of the great losses I caused.”
US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer delivered the sentence in Manhattan. He rejected the prosecution’s call for 12 years, saying it was “unreasonably lenient.” He al
so dismissed the defence’s request for five years as “extremely unreasonable.”
ALSO READ: PHOTOS: FCCPC seals Ikeja Electric headquarters over consumer rights violations
“Your crime caused real people to lose $40 billion of real money,” the judge told him. He described the case as “a fraud of epic, generational proportions.”
Terraform Labs had promoted TerraUSD as a stablecoin that would always stay at $1. Prosecutors said the system was secretly supported with cash injections and collapsed when the coin fell below its peg. This also dragged down its sister token, Luna, and caused a ripple of panic across crypto markets.
Kwon pleaded guilty in August and agreed to forfeit more than $19 million. Prosecutors said the losses were greater than those linked to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood combined. The judge said the number of victims could reach one million.
After the crash, Kwon tried to restart operations in Singapore but later fled to the Balkans with a fake passport. He was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 and spent 17 months in custody before being extradited to the US. That time has now been credited toward his sentence.