Do Kwon Criminal Trial Set for 2026 as Lawyers Confront ‘Massive’ Trove of Evidence
NEW YORK, NY — Terraform Labs co-founder and former CEO Do Kwon’s US fraud trial is tentatively scheduled for next January, allowing prosecutors and Kwon’s defense lawyers enough time to review the “enormous” six terabyte trove of data expected to be produced in the discovery process.
In a preliminary hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, lead prosecutor Jared Lenow told the court that the government expected to face further delays due to challenges in accessing encrypted information and unlocking the four cell phone provided by Montenegrin authorities when they extradited Kwon to the US on December 31. . Lenow added that the government should also translate the obtained materials from Kwon’s native Korean.
“It looks like we’re going to be backing up U-Haul in the Southern District,” District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) said Wednesday.
Engelmayer said scheduling the start date of a trial for more than a year from the first conference was “unprecedented” in his career as a judge. He told Kwon’s lead attorney, Michael Ferrara of Hecker Fink LLP, to ask his client — currently being held without bail in a local correctional facility after spending 22 months in custody in Montenegro — if he would rather have an earlier trial. Engelmayer gave the defense a week to request an earlier date of 2025.
Last week, Kwon pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy stemming from the $40 billion explosion of the Terra/LUNA ecosystem in 2022.
Kwon and his company were charged with civil fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, and later found guilty by a New York jury. Together, they were ordered to pay $4.5 billion in penalties and disgorgement, of which Kwon himself contributed $200 million. Terraform Labs has already filed for bankruptcy.
The next status conference on the case is scheduled for March 6 at 11 am eastern time.
