Briefly
- The DOJ needs Do Kwon to obtain the complete 12-year jail sentence allowed below the plea deal he signed in August.
- Prosecutors say a lighter sentence could be unfair in comparison with Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25-year jail sentence.
- Kwon can be sentenced December 11 for 2 crimes: conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud.
The Division of Justice is asking a federal choose to condemn Do Kwon to 12 years in jail—the utmost sentence prosecutors reserved the fitting to pursue after the Terra founder pleaded responsible this summer time.
Although Kwon is technically eligible to serve 25 years in federal jail, the DOJ promised in August that it might solely search as much as 12 years as a part of a deal reached to encourage Kwon to forgo a jury trial and admit to 2 crimes: conspiracy to defraud, and wire fraud.
Now, federal prosecutors are advocating that the disgraced crypto founder obtain the utmost sentence below that deal. In a authorized submitting submitted late Thursday, DOJ legal professionals argued that Kwon wants a stiff sentence to keep away from “unwarranted sentencing disparities” with different, related instances—particularly, that of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
In a 2023 jury trial, Bankman-Fried was discovered responsible of seven fraud and conspiracy fees for his position in his $32 billion crypto change’s implosion. A choose later sentenced him to 25 years in jail.
“Choose Kaplan imposed a sentence of 25 years on Bankman-Fried who, like Kwon, perpetrated a fraud of staggering proportions in his twenties after which attributed his brazen prison conduct partially to youth and inexperience,” the prosecutors wrote.
Kwon, a 34-year previous Korean nationwide, discovered himself on the heart of a worldwide monetary meltdown in 2022 when two cryptocurrencies he created, UST and LUNA, quickly grew to become nugatory, wiping out over $40 billion in worth and triggering a cascading disaster within the crypto market. The ensuing “contagion” impacted FTX and a number of other different notable companies.
In Thursday’s submitting, prosecutors famous that Kwon’s attorneys failed to say Bankman-Fried’s case of their request that the entrepreneur obtain a five-year jail sentence.
“True, Bankman-Fried exercised his proper to a trial,” the DOJ stated. “However that scarcely justifies a 20-year delta between Bankman-Fried’s sentence and that requested by Kwon.”
The DOJ additionally took intention at Kwon’s attorneys for arguing the Terra founder ought to obtain a “far shorter sentence” than Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, who was handed 12 years earlier in 2025 for misappropriating his prospects’ crypto and manipulating the value of his agency’s token.
“Whereas Mashinsky was not detained pending trial and contested core elements of his conduct, neither did he get hold of a faux passport and attempt to dwell on the lam in another country,” prosecutors stated. “In any occasion, the magnitude of Mashinsky’s crime pales compared to Kwon’s: $5 billion versus $40 billion in investor losses.”
Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in 2023 and convicted of touring with solid passports months after warrants had been issued for his arrest in each the US and South Korea.
After an extraordinarily protracted jurisdictional battle, the crypto entrepreneur was extradited to New York earlier this 12 months.
Kwon can be sentenced in Manhattan on December 11 by U.S. District Choose Paul Engelmayer.
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