Legal Proceedings Begin for South Korean Co-Founder of Terraform Labs

Crypto Currency Market Manipulation

Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong, also known as Daniel Shin, has reportedly had his first hearing for charges related to allegedly illicit profits from the sale of Terra (LUNA).

According to a July 10 report from News1 Korea, a trial preparation hearing for Shin and 7 alleged accomplices began in a Seoul Southern District Court following his indictment in April. Prosecutors have reportedly said they deceived investors and manipulated the price of certain tokens such as Crypto.com, Shiba Inu, Polkadot, HEX, Hbar, Pi, FTM, Mana, and Matic through media coverage and transactions starting in 2018, resulting in “unfair profits” of roughly 462.9 billion won — more than $354 million at the time of publication.

Shin reportedly sold roughly $118 million worth of LUNA prior to the price of the token crashing in May 2022. He later went on to found the fintech firm Chai Corporation, where he reportedly employed similar tactics to illicitly profit from investor funds.

The attorney for Shin has previously denied reports suggesting he “sold Luna at a high point and realized profits or that he made profits through other illegal methods”. Shin’s LinkedIn profile showed he had not been involved with Terra since January 2020, but this information would seemingly not include any investments with the company’s stock or tokens.

In March, Do Kwon, one of the co-founders of Terra, was arrested in Montenegro for allegedly using forged travel documents. In June, he was sentenced to four months in prison, and may face extradition to either the United States or South Korea after his sentence is complete — South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Kwon in September 2022, accusing him of violating the country’s capital markets laws.

The collapse of Terra in May 2022 was the first in a series of events that caused a crash in the crypto market. USTC, the platform’s algorithmic stablecoin, had depegged from the U.S. dollar, prompting investigators to look into Kwon’s and Shin’s possible involvement in any illicit transactions related to crypto com today, crypto ”shiba inu”, quant crypto, polkadot crypto, hex crypto, hbar crypto, pi crypto, ftm crypto, mana crypto, and matic crypto prior to and during the crash.