Do Kwon Judge Demands Answers Before Sentencing Over ‘Assurance’ He’ll Serve Time

The U.S. district judge sentencing Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon for defrauding investors requested answers to a number of questions before the hearing takes place on Thursday, court documents revealed.

Paul A. Engelmayer, judge for the Southern District of New York, posed six questions, including whether Kwon’s victims will have their day in court and whether he will be able to avoid serving time if sent to South Korea, where he faces pending charges. The judge asked both sides to respond to his questions by Dec. 10.

The collapse of Terraform, which reached over $50 billion in market value at its peak, was a pivotal moment for the crypto market downturn in 2022.

“Assuming a transfer of Mr. Kwon to foreign custody to serve the back half of his sentence, what assurance would the United States have that he would not be released before the completion of the prison term imposed by this Court?,” the judge asked. He also asked if Kwon’s victims “have expressed interest in being heard at sentencing?”

U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison sentence for Kwon; his defense team requested a five-year term.

Engelmayer also requested clarity on whether Kwon should get credit for roughly 17 months spent in Montenegrin custody, what specific criminal exposure he still faces in South Korea, how any victim-compensation process would work, and whether he qualifies for federal sentence-reduction credits or should face supervised release at all.