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Tag: Terra

  • Terra founder Do Kwon wins second extradition appeal in Montenegro

    Terra founder Do Kwon wins second extradition appeal in Montenegro

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    The Montenegro Court of Appeals revoked Do Kwon’s extradition to his native South Korea or the U.S. for a second time. 

    Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon secured victory in his appeal to overturn a decision from the High Court of Montenegro allowing his extradition from the country. The Appeals Court cited discrepancies in the process that initially ordered his removal to the U.S. or his home country of South Korea.

    According to the Court of Appeals, the High Court of Montenegro did not provide concise reasoning in approving Kwon’s extradition. Additionally, the order in which requests from the two countries arrived was unclear, and facts were not treated wholly in line with local laws. 

    Do Kwon’s lawyer, Goran Rodic, previously suggested that political pressure from foreign governments influenced the extradition procedure. 

    In December, Kwon won an appeal to revoke the High Court’s ruling that initially approved his extradition. However, the same court again decided on Dec. 29 that legal arguments for his repatriation were sound. This was the second time Montenegro’s High Court had reaffirmed the verdict, prompting another appeal from Kwon and his legal advisors. 

    The case has now been returned to the High Court for reassessment. 

    Kwon’s handover to South Korean or U.S. authorities has stretched over months following his arrest and imprisonment in Montenegro. In March 2023, the former Terra CEO was detained at a Podgorica airport with falsified travel documents.

    Following a guilty verdict for passport forgery, Kwon was sentenced to four months in a Balkan prison, and his sentence was extended while local authorities attended to his extradition. This came after he was declared an international fugitive by Interpol over his connection to the multi-billion collapse of Terra, a blockchain ecosystem created by Kwon.

    Kwon was arrested alongside former Terraform Labs CFO Han Chang-joon, who has been extradited to South Korea, where he may likely face criminal charges. 


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    Naga Avan-Nomayo

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  • SEC assents to Do Kwon, Terra trial delay until April 15

    SEC assents to Do Kwon, Terra trial delay until April 15

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is unopposed to delaying Terra’s crypto fraud trial and instead open to waiting till Terraform co-founder Do Kwon is extradited.

    Federal prosecutors filed two court arguments for the trial of Do Kwon and his blockchain startup Terraform Labs over the $40 billion collapse of TerraLuna (LUNC) and TerraUSD (UST) in May 2022.

    The SEC agreed to a “modest adjournment” of the Terraform case until mid-April while proceedings over Kwon’s extradition continue in Montenegro. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also argued against separate trials for Kwon and Terraform since the cases are commingled. 

    Kwon’s lawyers had sought court approval to delay Terra’s trial until Mar. 18 so the former crypto tycoon could attend the trial. His lawyers disclosed that Kwon would not file for a second extension if the defendant could not meet the court’s new date.

    Meanwhile, the ex-tech billionaire reportedly filed another appeal to overturn a Montenegro High Court’s ruling upholding extradition requests from his native South Korea and the U.S. where he faces charges.

    According to his attorneys, the High Court’s verdict ignored a bilateral extradition treaty with America and the European Convention on Extradition. Kwon had previously won an appeal against the extradition requests in November last year. However, the High Court in Podgorica, where Kwon was arrested, reinstated its ruling weeks later in December. 

    Do Kwon and Terraform are accused of misleading users and investors about the stability of UST, an algorithmic stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. UST could not maintain its promised $1 price, leading to an implosion within Terra’s ecosystem. 

    Terra’s crash would eventually precede a domino of bankruptcies and the start of 2022’s crypto winter.


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    Naga Avan-Nomayo

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  • Crypto Veterans Team Up With New Proposal To Send LUNC And USTC To $1

    Crypto Veterans Team Up With New Proposal To Send LUNC And USTC To $1

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    The LUNC community has received a proposal from Genuine Labs, a group of experienced developers who aim to contribute to the Terra Classic ecosystem, something that could help revive the USTC and LUNC tokens. 

    What The Latest LUNC Proposal Is About

    According to the proposal titled ‘Genuine Labs Terra Classic Development Proposal,’ the developers who boast extensive experience in Cosmos stacks aim to work with L1 teams to improve the IBC Hooks and Packet Forward Middleware (PFM) features. They will also enhance the “end-to-end testing and interchain testing for the fee tax charging mechanism.”

    These plans, if implemented, apparently come with a lot of benefits for the Terra Classic ecosystem. For one, the IBC Hooks is said to be capable of enhancing liquidity and cross-chain DeFi applications. IBC-hook token transfers will also help facilitate direct dApp interaction. Meanwhile, the PFM will enable multi-hop transfers and robust interchain applications.

    Improving and integrating testing mechanisms also comes with its benefits. This will ensure that the tax mechanism is efficient and reliable and developers will be able to simulate real-world scenarios for thorough testing. Lastly, implementing this will also help accelerate development in the Terra Classic ecosystem. 

    If the proposal gets approved, Genuine Labs will carry out these plans in two phases. The developers also mentioned that implementation will last for for six weeks and will cost $16,000. So far, most validators seem to be in support of the proposal, as 57.32% of the total votes cast have voted in support of it. 

    The quorum is, however, yet to be met as just over 8% of those meant to vote have actually voted. Voting for the proposal will end on December 30. Therefore, there is still enough time for the proposal to scale through. 

    LUNC price at $0.00015 | Source: LUNCUSDT on Tradingview.com

    Update On The Plan To Burn 800 Million USTC

    Bitcoinist had previously reported the LUNC community’s proposal to burn 800 million USTC from the Luna Classic treasury. Voting on the proposal had begun, and then, it looked more likely than not that the proposal was going to scale through. However, things have taken a drastic turn since then. 

    Data from the voting forum shows that more validators have voted against the proposal since then. In fact, some of these validators have gone as far as voting against the proposal with their veto power. This is significant as the veto votes currently stand at 24.55% of the total votes cast so far, and the veto threshold is 33.40%. 

    Validators seem to be against this move due to the legal repercussions. This proposal was said to have legally absolved them, but they might still not think so and are choosing to be cautious. Voting ends on December 27, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out. 

    Featured image from Block Builders, chart from Tradingview.com

    Disclaimer: The article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.

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    Scott Matherson

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  • The Top 10 high-profile crypto fraud cases

    The Top 10 high-profile crypto fraud cases

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    As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, crypto industry executives are increasingly finding themselves entangled in legal battles.

    The recent case involving prominent crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has further highlighted the challenges faced by individuals at the forefront of the digital asset revolution. Let’s take a deep dive into the top 10 high-profile crypto fraud cases so far.

    Do Kwon and the collapse of Terra

    In March 2023, Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, a Singapore-based blockchain platform, was arrested in Montenegro. Kwon, a South Korean national, was charged with fraud in the United States and indicted on eight charges, including securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy.

     He had been a fugitive for several months, and South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in September 2022. Kwon was detained by Montenegro police at Podgorica airport while trying to board a flight to Dubai with another South Korean citizen. 

    During the encounter, police found forged passports of Costa Rica and Belgium. Kwon’s identity was confirmed through a fingerprint match. He spent Thursday night in police custody and was scheduled to appear in court on Friday evening. 

    The collapse of TerraUSD and Luna, two digital currencies issued by Terraform Labs, in May 2022, wiped out an estimated $40 billion from the crypto market. In June, he was sentenced to four months in prison by a Montenegrin court for using a forged passport during his travel attempt. 

    Avi Eisenberg

     In December 2022, Avi Eisenberg, a crypto trader, was arrested in Puerto Rico under accusations of manipulating prices on the Mango Markets crypto exchange. He faced charges of commodities fraud, commodities market manipulation, and wire fraud related to his actions on the Mango Markets decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. 

    Eisenberg was accused of fraudulently obtaining approximately $110 million worth of cryptocurrency by manipulating the price of specific perpetual futures contracts on Mango Markets. Eisenberg’s trial was set to commence on December 8, 2023, but it was postponed until April 8, 2024. 

    This delay was granted after his legal team requested more time to prepare, given the complexity of the case involving intricate legal and factual issues. Eisenberg’s alleged scheme posed challenges for both the prosecution and defense, making the proceedings notably more complex than typical fraud cases.

    Alex Mashinsky 

    Last July, Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, was arrested and charged with wire fraud and other offenses by U.S. prosecutors. 

    He stands accused of orchestrating a lengthy scheme to deceive customers, ultimately leading to Celsius Network’s collapse with over $1 billion in debt. 

    Prosecutors allege that Mashinsky inflated his firm’s cryptocurrency price to attract customers, enabling him to pocket tens of millions of dollars. Mashinsky pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for September 2024. 

    Su Zhu and the fall of 3AC

    On Sept. 29, Su Zhu, co-founder of the now-defunct Three Arrows Capital hedge fund, was arrested at Singapore’s Changi Airport while attempting to leave the country. 

    The arrest followed Zhu’s failure to comply with a court order, compelling him to cooperate with the liquidation process of Three Arrows Capital’s assets. The liquidation firm, Teneo, obtained a committal order against Zhu, directing Singaporean police to detain him in prison for four months. 

    A similar order was reportedly issued for Zhu’s co-founder, Kyle Davies, whose whereabouts remain unknown. While in prison, Teneo will engage with Zhu concerning matters related to Three Arrows Capital, with a focus on recovering assets belonging to the hedge fund or acquired using its funds. 

    The liquidators are determined to ensure Zhu’s full compliance with the court order. Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, leading to significant disruptions in the crypto industry as major players had to adjust their operations and restrict customer withdrawals following a crypto market downturn triggered by the collapse of the Terra/LUNA project.

    Thomas Smith, Kyle Nagy, and Braden Karony 

    Thomas Smith, Kyle Nagy and Braden Karony are the people behind the crypto token SafeMoon, a digital asset once valued at over $8 billion. They were accused of fraud and money laundering by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 1, 2023. 

    The charges revolve around allegations that the trio diverted millions of dollars for personal expenses, including luxury cars and real estate, and obtained investor funds dishonestly. 

    They are accused of deceiving investors about the token’s liquidity and making false promises about its features, claiming these would drive the price to record highs. The individuals charged in this case include founder Kyle Nagy, Chief Executive Braden John Karony, and former Chief Technology Officer Thomas Smith. 

    While Nagy is currently evading authorities, Karony and Smith have been apprehended. The charges against them encompass conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. 

    William Ulbricht

    San Francisco-born Ross William Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, is serving life in prison without possibility of parole. Ross William Ulbricht’s conviction stems from his creation and operation of Silk Road, a now-defunct online marketplace where individuals used Bitcoin to purchase drugs, hacking tools, and counterfeit passports. 

    Ulbricht was found guilty of seven offenses, including distributing narcotics and conspiring to distribute illegal goods. He intentionally designed Silk Road as a platform for illegal activities, allowing users to buy and sell drugs and other illicit items anonymously, beyond the reach of law enforcement. Ulbricht employed various methods to anonymize transactions on Silk Road. 

    The website operated as a hidden service on the Tor network, enabling the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services. Ulbricht operated under the alias; Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to a fictional character from The Princess Bride.

    Charlie Shrem

    Charlie Shrem is the former chief executive of crypto exchange BitInstant. In 2014, Shrem was sentenced to two years in prison for knowingly transmitting almost $1 million in Bitcoin meant for drug trafficking on Silk Road. Prosecutors also accused Shrem, who had served as vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, of using Silk Road to purchase drugs for himself. Shrem has since been released and now works as a crypto venture capitalist.

    Mark Karpeles

    Mark Karpeles is the former CEO of the bankrupt crypto exchange, Mt. Gox. Karpeles, a French entrepreneur and programmer, served as the CEO of Mt. Gox, the world’s inaugural Bitcoin exchange. 

    He took over Mt. Gox from Jed McCaleb in 2011 and initiated a software overhaul. The exchange faced a significant setback in 2014 when it lost nearly $500 million worth of investors’ Bitcoin, leading to its collapse.

    Following this incident, Karpeles was arrested in Tokyo in 2015 and spent over 11 months in custody. Karpeles was found guilty of unlawfully manipulating Mt. Gox’s electronic records, inflating the company’s holdings falsely by $33.5 million. 

    Nathaniel Chastain

    Nathaniel Chastain is a former employee of the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea. On June 1, 2022, Nathaniel Chastain was apprehended in New York by the FBI. 

    He faced charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Chastain was accused of leveraging his insider knowledge about which tokens would be featured on OpenSea’s front page. He would buy these tokens just before they were showcased, immediately selling them to profit from the increased attention, all while conducting these transactions through anonymous digital currency wallets to conceal his actions. 

    In May 2023, Chastain was found guilty of fraud and money laundering. He was subsequently sentenced to three months in prison, three months of home confinement, 200 hours of community service, and a $50,000 fine. 

    Faruk Fatih Özer

    Fatih Faith Ozer, the founder and CEO of Thodex, a Turkish crypto exchange, was captured in Albania in Aug. 2022. He had fled Turkey after his exchange abruptly shut down in April 2021, leaving more than 400,000 users without access to deposits totaling $2 billion in cryptocurrencies. 

    Ozer was extradited back to Turkey in June 2023, where he faced charges of money laundering, fraud, and organized crime. Following a court verdict, he was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison, primarily for fraud-related crimes. 

    This case extended to Ozer’s family and senior employees, with his brother, sister, and four other top staff members also being imprisoned. As part of the investigation, at least 83 individuals were detained. 

    The exact extent of losses suffered by investors during Thodex’s collapse remains uncertain, with varying reports in Turkish media, some estimating the losses to be as high as $2 billion. This incident carried significant implications for Turkey’s cryptocurrency landscape, particularly considering the widespread use of crypto as a hedge against inflation in the country.


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    Ogwu Osaemezu Emmanuel

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  • Analyst Predicts Terra LUNA To Surge By 80-100% Following Key Event

    Analyst Predicts Terra LUNA To Surge By 80-100% Following Key Event

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    LUNA, the native token of the Terra 2.0 blockchain, was among the many gainers in the past week positively affected by Bitcoin’s impressive rally toward the $35,000 mark.

    According to data from CoinMarketCap, LUNA is up by 13.96% in the last seven days, providing some relief for investors who have had to endure the token’s bearish form in the previous weeks leading to this price rise. 

    As expected, LUNA’s current bullish form has now attracted much attention, with some analysts speculating there could be more gains in the coming weeks. 

    LUNA Could Double Its Value After Breaching Major Trendline, Analyst Says

    In a post on X on Sunday, crypto analyst Captain Faibik shared with his 67,000 followers an intriguing bullish prediction on LUNA’s price trajectory.

    Faibik, who claimed to not be a LUNA enthusiast, noted that the altcoin has recently broken a major bearish trendline and could potentially gain by 80-100%.

    According to Faibik’s analysis, LUNA traded above $0.47 in the past week, breaching a bearish trendline that stretches as far back as January 2023 on the token’s daily chart.

    Traditionally, trendlines are used by traders to connect several price points together and provide some insight into the potential direction of an asset’s price movement. 

    When an asset’s price moves out of an established trendline, as in the case of LUNA, it can be interpreted as an impending price reversal.

    Since the start of 2023, LUNA has produced an overall negative price performance, losing over 63% of its value in the last 10 months. However, if Faibik’s prediction proves true, the popular altcoin could be on its way to a remarkable recovery. 

    At the time of writing, LUNA trades at $0.468 with a 0.70% decline in the last day. With an 80-100% price increase, this price could rise as high as $0.934 in the coming weeks.

    Meanwhile, LUNA’s daily trading volume is currently down by 3.73% and valued at $48.67 million. With a market cap of $263.92 million, LUNA is ranked as the 117th largest cryptocurrency.

    Related Reading: Is Terra Classic Planning For USTC To Be Pegged To The Dollar Again?

    Terra Community Approves New Proposal 

    In other news, the Terra Community has recently passed governance proposal 4790 aimed at the active and aggressive development of the Terra ecosystem with resources provided by Terraform Labs.

    Under this newly approved proposal, Terraform Labs, alongside Terra community partners, will explore opportunities to utilize non-LUNA capital in driving the growth of the project’s economy. 

    In addition, 125 million LUNA will be staked by a Terra community council to encourage and reward active network engagement, offer essential services to support the ecosystem, and guarantee equitable decentralization.

    LUNA trading at $0.4696 on the daily chart | Source: LUNAUSDT chart on Tradingview.com

    Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview

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    Semilore Faleti

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