The criminal fraud trial of Do Kwon, co-founder and former CEO of Terraform Labs, is tentatively scheduled for January 2026 in the United States.
The timeline accounts for the processing of six terabytes of data as part of the discovery phase.
Mountain of evidence against Do Kwon
During the Manhattan hearing, prosecutors highlighted, for example, significant delays due to challenges in evaluating evidence. Prosecutors are trying to decrypt four phones obtained from Montenegrin officials and thus translate key documents from Korean.
Lead prosecutor Jared Lenow explained that accessing encrypted information from these devices remains a primary hurdle. The phones were handed over when Kwon was extradited to the United States (US) on December 31, 2024.
Do Kwon declares himself innocent
Last week, Do Kwon entered a “not guilty” plea to one of nine charges. They include securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy to launder money.
These claims come from the $40 billion collapse of the Terra/LUNA ecosystem in 2022.
The Founder of the Earth, Do Kwon, now faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison. The criminal charges detailed in the 79-page U.S. Justice Department indictment include new allegations that were not part of the SEC's civil trial. The reason this case is more interesting than the SBF/FTX case is because it applies more directly to cryptocurrency projects and founders experimenting in DeFi,” wrote Zack Guzmán, a journalist who previously interviewed Kwon.
Kwon's extradition from Montenegro was finalized on New Year's Eve after Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic approved the U.S. request. That decision was based on legal criteria that favored American jurisdiction over South Korea.
Meanwhile, his trial is expected to be similar to that of FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried. However, Kwon's allegations are more severe, and the number of victims is much higher than that of the FTX collapse.
Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year sentence. But the Terraform Labs founder could face a harsher sentence if found guilty.
In June 2024, Terraform Labs reached a settlement with the Security Exchange Commission (SEC). The settlement required the company to pay $4.47 billion in fines. This included $3.6 billion in disgorgement fines, $420 million in civil penalties, and $467 million in prejudgment interest.
Kwon was also ordered to pay more than $200 million, including $110 million in restitution, $80 million in civil penalties and $14.3 million in interest.
The article Do Kwon Trial Set for January 2026 appeared first on BeInCrypto Brasil.
