LUNA Founder Faces Eight Fraud Charges For The 2022 Crash

Do Kwon, who helped start Terraform Labs and was arrested at the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro, on Thursday, was charged by federal prosecutors in New York just a few hours later.

The 12-page indictment from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York says that Kwon faces eight counts, including conspiracy to defraud, two counts of commodities fraud, two counts of securities fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and manipulate the market.

The US also wants Kwon’s assets that are tied to the crimes he is charged with to be taken away.

US Attorney Damian Williams signed the indictment,

“The defendant shall forfeit to the United States…any and all property, real and personal, that constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the commission of said offences, including but not limited to a sum of money in United States currency representing the amount of proceeds traceable to the commission of said offences.”

After Terraform Labs’ Terra (LUNA) token and TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin failed, causing more than $40 billion in losses, Kwon ran away.

CBS News says that Kwon was caught by police in Montenegro when he tried to get on a flight to Dubai with a fake Costa Rican passport. The arrest was announced on Twitter by the country’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Filip Adzic. South Korean authorities later confirmed the crypto fugitive’s identity using photos and fingerprints.

Kwon is being held in Montenegro right now. Bloomberg says that both the US and the man’s home country of South Korea, which issued an arrest warrant for him in September, want to send him back to their country.