Legal Experts Don’t Think Do Kwon will Face Legal Charges in US
Do Kwon is the founder and chief executive of Terraform Labs and legal experts have stated that it is unlikely that he will face any legal charges in the United States after the crash of his stablecoinTerraUSD (UST) and its sister crypto terra (LUNA). According to the experts, it was likely that there would be civil charges, which would probably be lawsuits from crypto investors. Questions about holding Do Kwon accountable arose after the UST stablecoin and LUNA crashed to zero, resulting in massive losses for many investors and dealing a serious blow to the crypto market.
Legal experts have disclosed that there is a very little chance that Do Kwon will be criminally prosecuted in the United States. As per the law, it is necessary for prosecutors to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person has engaged in criminal wrongdoing. This is very different than homicide where it is possible to bring it witnesses for proving who committed the crime. In these cases, prosecutors have to prove what was in the mind of the individual and that can be a painstaking process. It is because a massive number of documents have to be reviewed and lots of people have to be interviewed.
Likewise, there are a lot of lawyers involved in the process and court appearances, as well as grand jury time, needs to be scheduled. A trial attorney and former federal prosecutor, Renato Mariotti also shed some light on the matter. He said that in such cases, it is the job of prosecutors to prove the state of the defendant’s mind beyond a reasonable doubt and this is usually accomplished via tweets, texts, emails and other similar statements. An excellent example of such a case is that of Theranos and its chief executive, Elizabeth Holmes.
The company had informed investors that they were running blood samples in their own machines when they had been using machines of other companies for conducting the tests. Such statements are good evidence for proving intent to defraud and deceive, as opposed to mistakes, misjudgments, or any other kinds of misconduct. As opposed to criminal cases, civil ones do not have such a burden of proof. In these cases, the one with the burden has to show that there is more than a 50% chance that the claim is correct.
This usually leads to remedies that are administrative, regulatory and civil, but not criminal. Crypto investors can bring lawsuits. A class action lawsuit has already been filed against Terraform Labs, Kwon and the co-founder of the firm as well, but this has happened in South Korea. As far as the United States is concerned, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had already gone after Kwon, as he had dodged a couple of subpoenas. Legal experts believe that other governments and agencies could also take a look at Kwon’s conduct, along with individuals who suffered because of him. The jurisdiction is going to be the primary issue.
