cryptonewsz.com
US prosecutors in the criminal case against Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, believe that the Terra ecosystem crash could have affected over one million victims worldwide. This huge number of victims reflect the worldwide fallout of Terra’s downfall in 2022, which contributed to several bankruptcies within the crypto industry.
Do Kwon’s Terra Crash Affected 1 Million Victims?
In a filing dated January 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Gitner laid down plans to notify victims of their rights in the criminal proceedings against Kwon. Due to the complexities of identifying victims since many conducted transactions on foreign exchanges or through anonymous digital wallets- the government plans to create a dedicated website to disseminate information about the case.
“The Government estimates that the number of victims in this case exceeds hundreds of thousands of individuals and entities, and potentially totals more than one million,” Gitner noted.
Do Kwon first appeared in a US court on January 2 after following his extradition from Montenegro, where he had been detained on unrelated charges in 2023. He pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges related to fraud at Terraform Labs and agreed to remain in detention pending trial.
Furthermore, in April 2024, a US judge ruled in a related civil case that Kwon and Terraform Labs were liable for fraud in a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The judgment required them to pay around $4.5 billion in penalties, disgorgement, and interest.