The co-founder of Terraform Labs had pleaded responsible to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud
A courtroom sketch depicts Do Kwon as he pleads responsible to fraud on the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York on Aug.12, 2025. (Reuters/Yonhap)
A US courtroom sentenced South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon to fifteen years in jail on Thursday for orchestrating a US$40 billion fraud along with his enterprise, Terraform Labs.
US District Choose Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York handed Kwon the sentence for committing wire fraud and conspiring to commit fraud.
Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 12 years for Kwon, whose full identify is Kwon Do-hyeong. Kwon’s protection crew had requested a sentence not exceeding 5 years to permit him to return to South Korea and face potential felony costs right here.
Kwon pled responsible in August in a US courtroom. Whereas his costs might have led to a most sentence of 130 years in jail, prosecutors requested as much as 12 years.
“I made false and deceptive statements about why it regained its peg by failing to reveal a buying and selling agency’s position in restoring that peg,” Kwon stated on the time. “What I did was fallacious.”
Beneath a plea deal, US prosecutors won’t block Kwon from requesting repatriation to Korea after serving half of his sentence within the US.
By Kim Gained-chul, Washington correspondent
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