- Do Kwon’s trial has been pencilled in for January 2026 due to the abundance of data that needs assessing
- Kwon has pleaded not guilty to US criminal charges related to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem
- The South Korean was extradited to the US last week
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon’s US trial will not start until next year due to the amount of evidence both sides need to wade through. Kwon, who was extradited to the US last week, faces multiple allegations, including fraud and deceiving investors. Some six terabytes worth of data is expected to be assessed for potential evidentiary value, including from Kwon’s multiple phones.
Kwon Faces Multiple Fraud Charges
Kwon faces allegations of fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy tied to the collapse of TerraUSD, an algorithmic stablecoin designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar. Its failure in May 2022 erased $40 billion in value from the cryptocurrency market, leaving countless investors financially devastated. Prosecutors claim Kwon misled investors about the stability of the coin and its ecosystem, contributing to the crisis.
Prosecutors alleged this week that the number of Terra victims may number over one million, and asked the court’s permission to establish a public online notification system to inform them of court proceedings as the case progresses.
Trial Date Set Amidst Extensive Evidence Review
The issue of the trials’ start date was paramount in a hearing Wednesday, where lead prosecutor Jared Lenow told District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York that the government needed time to access encrypted information seized from Kwon as well as unlock four cell phones provided by Montenegrin authorities when they extradited Kwon. All the extracted material must also be translated into English, Lenow added.
The situation led to Judge Engelmayer joking that the prosecution would be “backing up a U-Haul to the Southern District” in order to cope with it. Engelmayer agreed that both teams would need time to carry out the requisite evidentiary discovery, although he stated that scheduling the start date of a trial for over a year from the initial conference was “unprecedented” in his judicial career.
Engelmayer gave Kwon’s team one week to request an earlier date in 2025, should they wish.
