US prosecutors estimate over 1 million victims in Do Kwon’s criminal case

U.S. prosecutors, who have filed criminal charges against former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, estimate that the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrency potentially affected more than one million victims.

“While it is difficult to precisely quantify the number of Kwon’s victims … the Government estimates that the number of victims in this case exceeds hundreds of thousands of individuals and entities, and potentially totals more than one million,” Acting US Attorney Daniel Gitner wrote in a court filing submitted on Monday.

In the alleged crypto fraud scheme, prosecutors claimed that Kwon built the Terra ecosystem on “lies” and “manipulative and deceptive” techniques to deceive investors into believing it was a functioning and reliable financial system. 

“Ultimately, investors suffered over $40 billion in losses as a result of Kwon’s fraud,” the filing said.

Due to the number of potential victims, U.S. prosecutors said it is “impracticable” to send individualized notice to each victim informing them of their rights. Instead, prosecutors have requested the court to post a public notice of the proceedings online.

Kwon faces multiple criminal charges in the U.S., the destination of his extradition from Montenegro last week. His charges include commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, among others. If convicted of all charges, Kwon could face a maximum penalty of 130 years in prison.

In a New York court last week, Kwon pleaded not guilty to his criminal charges. His next court appearance is set for Jan. 8, according to Reuters.