The U.S. criminal fraud case against co-founder and former CEO Do Kwon of Terraform Labs, the cryptocurrency company that went bankrupt due to the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD (UST), is tentatively scheduled for January 2026. It would give prosecutors and Do Kwon's defense lawyers ample time to review the "huge" 6 terabytes of data expected to be generated during the criminal discovery process.
During a preliminary hearing in Manhattan on January 8, Chief Prosecutor Jared Lenow told the court that the government expected to face additional delays because of challenges in unlocking the four phones and obtaining encrypted information. The four phones were provided by Montenegro when it extradited Do Kwon to the United States on December 31 last year.
Prosecutor Jared Lenow also said authorities also had to translate the Korean-language material extracted from the phone. Korean is Do Kwon’s native language.
District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York also humorously said: "It sounds like we will have to provide U-Haul truck service support to the Southern District Court."
The judge said delaying the start of the trial by more than a year was "unprecedented" in his career as a judge. He told Do Kwon's lead defense attorney, Michael Ferrara of the law firm Hecker Fink, to ask his client, Do Kwon, if he wanted to go to trial early. Do Kwon, who had previously been detained in Montenegro for 22 months, is being held without bail at the Manhattan Correctional Facility. The judge gave the defendants one week to request an early trial in 2026.
Do Kwon pleaded not guilty last week to nine charges involving securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The previous collapse of the Terra ecosystem in 2022 involved a value of US$40 billion, and the number of affected households was estimated to be more than 1 million.
Do Kwon and his company had previously been charged with civil crimes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and were subsequently found guilty by a jury. They were later required to pay a total of US$4.5 billion in fines and confiscation of illegal gains, of which Do Kwon was fined US$200 million. Dollar. Terraform Labs has since filed for bankruptcy.
The next status conference in the case is scheduled for March 6.
"The evidence "exploded"! Do Kwon criminal trial postponed to January 2026" This article was first published on (Blocker).