US Prosecutors Seek 12-Year Prison Sentence for Terraform’s Do Kwon

US attorneys representing the federal government have requested a 12-year prison sentence for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon during his upcoming hearing.

In a Thursday submission to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, prosecutors requested that Kwon be sentenced to “twelve years’ imprisonment and complete the forfeiture of his criminal proceeds.”

This motion comes approximately four months after Kwon pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud.

“In just a few years, Kwon caused losses surpassing those inflicted by Samuel Bankman-Fried […] Alexander Mashinsky […] and Karl Sebastian Greenwood [….] combined [emphasis included in filing],” stated the filing. “The crash of the Terraform market initiated a sequence of crises that affected cryptocurrency markets and contributed to what is now termed ‘Crypto Winter.’”

Kwon is set to be sentenced on Thursday and was indicted by US authorities in March 2023 for charges such as securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering, and wire fraud linked to his role at Terraform.

After the Terra collapse in 2022, Kwon’s whereabouts became uncertain, but he was later arrested in Montenegro on unrelated charges and extradited to the US.

Related: South Korea targets sub-$680 crypto transfers in sweeping AML crackdown

The value of Terra’s native token, LUNA, jumped over 40% in the last 24 hours following the sentencing recommendation, rising from about $0.07 to $0.10 at the time of publication. However, it previously peaked at over $19.00 before the ecosystem’s collapse in May 2022.

Kwon indicates potential prison time in South Korea

In a November court document, Kwon’s legal team requested that he receive a sentence of no more than five years. They presented arguments for a reduced sentence, including the risk of facing 40 years in his home country of South Korea, where prosecutors are pursuing related allegations against him.

“He would not be able to leave jail in the US as a free man for any period: He will be transferred from any facility where he serves his sentence directly to an immigration detention center to await deportation to Seoul, where he will enter pretrial detention pending further charges in South Korea,” noted Kwon’s lawyers.