Crypto tycoon Do Kwon pleads not responsible in first look in US courtroom

NEW YORK — South Korean cryptocurrency tycoon Do Hyeong Kwon pleaded not responsible Thursday to a freshly unsealed indictment, launched in time for his first look in a U.S. courtroom.

Kwon entered the plea in Manhattan federal courtroom two days after his extradition from Montenegro.

The indictment alleges that the person nicknamed by some “the King of Cryptocurrency” lied to buyers from 2018 to 2022 to get them to take a position cash in Terraform Labs, the cryptocurrency firm of Singapore which he co-founded.

Authorities say buyers around the globe have been harmed by Terraform Labs’ $40 billion cryptocurrency crash.

THE May 2022 collapse got here regardless of the corporate’s declare that TerraUSD was a “steady forex” that may very well be relied upon.

Kwon didn’t communicate throughout his courtroom look besides to acknowledge that he understood English. His lawyer, Andrew Chesley, has pleaded not responsible to 2 separate variations of the indictment charging him with conspiracy, in addition to commodities, securities and digital communications fraud. A cash laundering cost was added Thursday.

Chesley and one other protection lawyer, David Patton, declined to remark as they left the courtroom. Their shopper was returned to federal jail after attorneys consented to his detention.

The superseding indictment accused Kwon of deceiving buyers by telling them that Terraform had developed dependable new monetary applied sciences permitting it to rework blockchain know-how right into a decentralized, autonomous monetary world with its personal forex, cost system , its inventory market and its financial savings financial institution.

“In actual fact,” the indictment states, “the monetary world constructed by Kwon was constructed on lies and manipulative and misleading strategies used to mislead buyers, customers, enterprise companions and authorities regulators ” on Terraform’s actions.

“Behind the scenes, the core Terraform merchandise didn’t work as Kwon mentioned they might and have been manipulated to create the phantasm of a functioning, decentralized monetary system with a view to entice buyers,” he provides.