A U.S. court has sentenced Terraform Labs founder Kwon Do-hyeong (34), who is on criminal trial in the United States on charges including fraud related to the issuance of the stablecoin ‘TerraUSD’ (hereinafter, Terra), to 15 years in prison.

Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York set the sentence during a hearing on the 11th (local time) in a case charging Kwon with fraud and other offenses.

Earlier, in August, Kwon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and wire fraud. As a result, the criminal proceedings moved directly to sentencing without a trial on guilt or innocence.

Under a ‘plea bargain’ (a sentence reduction or adjustment conditioned on a guilty plea) agreement, U.S. prosecutors sought up to a 12-year term, while his attorneys asked the court to cap the sentence at five years in light of his detention in Montenegro and the fact that he also faces additional criminal charges in South Korea. In the end, the court imposed a sentence that exceeded the recommendation.

Separately from the prison-term request, under the plea bargain agreement prosecutors also moved to forfeit $19,000,000 (approximately 27.9 billion KRW) from Kwon, along with certain other assets.

After Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023, U.S. federal prosecutors brought him to trial on eight counts, including securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy to manipulate markets. Late last year, Kwon was extradited from Montenegro to the United States, and a conspiracy to launder money charge was added.

Had he been convicted on all nine counts, Kwon could have faced up to 130 years in prison. Immediately after being extradited to the United States, he pleaded not guilty to all charges, but in August he changed his position and pleaded guilty to two offenses, including conspiracy to commit fraud and wire fraud.

Under the plea bargain agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice has stated that if Kwon serves half of his final sentence and complies with the plea terms, it will not oppose any later application to the International Prisoner Transfer Program.

Accordingly, after serving half of his sentence, Kwon may be transferred to South Korea upon his request.

Separate from the U.S. criminal case, Kwon has also been booked in South Korea on charges including violations of the Capital Markets Act. After his arrest in Montenegro, he argued that he should be sent to South Korea rather than the United States, but was ultimately extradited to the United States.