Terraform’s Do Kwon pleads not guilty to fake travel documents charges

One of the biggest news out of the cryptocurrency space is Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon pleading not guilty in a Montenegrin court on Thursday to a charge of forging his passport and travel document.

Kwon is presently in jail in Montenegro and being investigated in the U.S. and South Korea. If Kwon is convicted of falsifying his documents, he may have to serve his prison sentence in Montenegro before being extradited to the U.S. or South Korea, the Montenegrin Justice Ministry said in March.

While the crypto market is on a revival stint, one American state has introduced legislation that will undoubtedly impact the digital asset landscape. New York has introduced a bill that would accept stablecoins as a form of payment for bail. Let’s catch up with this and other updates across the cryptocurrency space.

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New York Introduces Stablecoin Bill

Latrice Walker, a New York legislator, has introduced a new measure that promotes the use of fiat-collateralized stablecoins as an acceptable way of paying bail bonds.

Introduced on May 10 and referred to as the New York Assembly Bill 7024, the legislation notes that while the conventional ways of paying bail bonds were cash, insurance bonds, and credit cards, it, however, requests that fiat-backed stablecoins be added to the list of permissible payment options.

If the measure is passed, fiat-backed stablecoins like Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, Binance’s USD (BUSD), and TrueUSD (TUSD) might be used to pay the bill bonds within the state. It should be emphasized that the bill made no reference to any specific stablecoin.

The stablecoin law follows a proposal presented on May 5 by New York Attorney General, Letitia James. This law aimed to tighten restrictions on the cryptocurrency business in order to protect investors, consumers, and the overall economy. Several New York legislators have shown support for this initiative.

South Korean Lawmaker Investigated for “Suspicious” Crypto Trades

South Korean authorities are currently investigating Rep. Kim Nam-kuk of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) for suspected cryptocurrency transactions. According to sources, the problem has been submitted to local prosecutors by South Korea’s financial authority. Furthermore, the development has sparked a public uproar over potential conflicts of interest.

On March 25, 2022, South Korea started applying the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rule. This was shortly after Kim apparently exited his crypto investments. The rule is a global standard-setter that targets the anonymity of crypto transactions in order to prevent money laundering.

According to the travel rule, exchanges must gather personal data on transactions and disclose it to authorities when it exceeds a particular threshold. Kim’s suspicious transaction alerted the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The matter was then turned over to the prosecution by the FIU.

But Kim argued that he did not cash out his tokens. As such, his actions do not translate to a transaction and therefore, he did not breach any laws. Moreover, South Korea’s Public Service Ethics Act makes no mention of reporting requirements for virtual assets. Therefore, he did not reveal his holdings since they were excluded from disclosure under the current Public Service Ethics Act.

Kim had previously co-sponsored an amendment to the Income Tax Act in July 2021, which included a provision to defer taxation on virtual assets, reported CoinDesk Korea. South Korea postponed plans to tax income from crypto as well as income from the “transfer or lending” of virtual assets to 2025.

Read Also: Kenya to impose digital asset tax on crypto, NFTs, online content

Terraform’s Do Kwon pleads not guilty to fake travel documents charges

Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying his passport and travel documents in a Montenegrin court on Thursday.

Kwon’s hearing comes a month after he and Chang-Joon Han, a former colleague who also pleaded not guilty, was detained at the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital while attempting to fly to Dubai. Their lawyer asked for bail conditions of €400,000 ($437,000) each and offered house arrest in Montenegro. The next court appearance is scheduled for June 16.

TerraUSD (UST), an algorithmic stablecoin that worked alongside its sister coin, Luna, lost its $1 peg on May 7, 2022. The catastrophe wiped out nearly $40 billion in market value, bringing a slew of crypto companies to their knees.

A year after the crash, Kwon is now in jail in Montenegro and being investigated in the U.S. and South Korea. If Kwon is convicted of falsifying his documents, he may have to serve his prison sentence in Montenegro before being extradited to the U.S. or South Korea, the Montenegrin Justice Ministry said in March. 

Crypto Custodian Aegis is offering Free Services to Women-Led Companies

Aegis Custody, a fully licensed and insured digital asset custodian, is offering to provide free custodial services to crypto companies founded or led by women.

The company, which is U.S.-qualified through its entity, Aegis Trust, said in a press release on Thursday that the initiative is aimed at supporting the growth of women-led crypto companies and promoting gender parity in a historically male-dominated space. Qualifying companies can receive six months of free custody services, worth a total of $28,000, regardless of their size or stage of development.

“This frees up resources to allow these companies to focus on growth and building innovative products and services without worrying about the expenses associated with custody services,” the company said in a statement.

Serra Wei, CEO and founder of Aegis Custody, was inspired to provide end-to-end custody and security services to other women after reflecting on the challenges she faced in Web3. “As a female founder, I am acutely aware of the lack of community and support for female-led crypto companies in the industry,” said Wei.

That is all from us this week. See you same time next week!