Do Kwon v. SEC: Terra legal update as of February 27, 2023

The collapse of Terra (LUNA) remains one of the high-profile incidents in the crypto space, with investigators attempting to piece together the role of founder Do Kwon in the crash. With Kwon having denied any wrongdoing, he remains on the run, with reports indicating he resides in Serbia.

In one of the most monumental proceedings in the case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Terraform Labs alongside Kwon with ‘orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities.’

According to the SEC, Terra and Kwon marketed cryptocurrencies as securities to investors while painting the entire Terra ecosystem as an elaborate fraud orchestrated by several collaborators.

Overall, charges against Kwon center around securities fraud, conducting an unregistered securities offering, and further securities violations. At the same time, amid the SEC charges, the agency alleged that he cashed out over 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from Terra.

Kwon’s manhunt

As part of the manhunt, South Korean authorities reportedly traveled to Serbia to initiate measures to capture and extradite Kwon, who has a red notice on his head. Following the high-profile visit, prosecutors confirmed that Serbian counterparts would “actively cooperate” in locating Kwon.

Besides authorities, investors in Terra are also taking a leading role in locating Kwon. For instance, a Discord group with over 4,000 members dubbed the UST Restitution Group (URG) have in the past actively shared updates on Kwon’s capture. Before the alleged relocation to Serbia, the group had initially hinted that Kwon might have resided in Dubai.

Kwon’s Twitter activity goes silent

Furthermore, his Twitter has gone silent, with the fugitive failing to update his followers regularly. Kwon used the platform mainly to defend himself while declaring his stand on various allegations labeled against him.

In fact, his last tweet was on January 9 with an exclamation mark when a user questioned his absence from the platform. At the same time, he appeared to agree with the notion that ‘bad actors associated with fiat brought LUNA down.’

!
— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) January 9, 2023

In the meantime, cryptocurrencies associated with the LUNA ecosystem continue to exhibit resilience despite initial projections of collapsing back to zero. The notable token has been the platform’s old chain Terra Classic (LUNC), which has previously emulated the trajectory of meme coins.

With no solid use cases, the community has turned to initiatives such as token burning and development activities to achieve sustainability.

LUNC price analysis

By press time, LUNC was trading at $0.0001621 with daily gains of less than 0.5%.

LUNC seven-day price chart. Source: Finbold

The token controls a market cap of about $958.13 million.

Featured image via Terra YouTube.