A few hours after his arrest, the CEO of Terraform Labs Do Kwon is now facing fraud charges with the United States authorities in New York.
United States authorities in New York have charged Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon with fraud, only hours after he was purportedly arrested in Montenegro.
The 31-year-old entrepreneur has been charged with eight separate charges, including commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to deceive and engage in market manipulation, according to a court filing filed by United States Attorney Damian Williams.
Under the first charge, conspiracy to defraud, U.S. prosecutors assert that they have jurisdiction over Kwon because he made a series of false and misleading statements during a television interview that was broadcast to — among other places — the Southern District of New York, regarding the level of user adoption of the Terra blockchain.
The next four allegations pertain to a series of allegedly deceptive comments about the TerraClassicUSD stablecoin’s (USTC) ability to maintain its peg with the U.S. dollar, as well as Kwon’s alleged involvement in trading techniques aimed to manipulate the market price of USTC.
The submission comes after Filip Adzic, the interior minister of Montenegro, reported on March 23 that a person suspected of being the former “cryptocurrency king” was held with “falsified documents” at the airport in Podgorica.
Adzic added that the suspect believed to be Kwon, was apprehended at Podgorica Airport together with his business associate Hon Chang Joon while attempting to fly to Dubai.
In a subsequent tweet, the Interior Ministry of Montenegro confirmed that Kwon used fake Costa Rican travel documents.
Do Kwon also faces criminal charges in Montenegro
According to a March 23 story by the Montenegrin newspaper Pobjeda, the Basic State Prosecution Office may soon file criminal charges against Kwon and Joon for using counterfeit Costa Rican travel documents, which Interpol allegedly discovered first.
Article 412, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, which imposes a maximum term of three years in jail, is believed to apply to the offense.
Pobjeda stated that a luggage search uncovered fraudulent Belgian travel documents along with three laptops and five mobile phones, which were confiscated.
On September 14, South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Kwon, who faces many charges of fraud and violations of capital markets law in his native state. In addition, Interpol issued a red notice for his arrest on September 26, and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed its own fraud allegations on February 16.
His alleged role in the May 2018 collapse of the $40 billion Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) token and TerraClassicUSD stablecoin (USTC) is the basis for the charges brought against him.
Kwon has apparently traveled between Singapore, Dubai, and Serbia since the collapse.
The South Korean foreign ministry revoked Kwon’s passport on October 20 after he failed to comply with an order issued on October 6.