The trial for Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-Seung and seven other associates who are charged with fraud in relation to the US$40 billion collapse of the Terra-Luna stablecoin and crypto project in May 2022 has been scheduled for May 26 in the Seoul Southern District Court.
The co-founder has assembled a team of 30 lawyers for his defense, which includes 11 lawyers from a law firm that recently hired a former Seoul prosecutor that investigated the Terra-Luna collapse.
Shin and seven Terraform employees were indicted for fraud on April 25, while two others face bribery charges related to the case.
Shin, a 38-year-old businessman and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School graduate, founded Tmon Inc., a South Korean e-commerce company in 2010 and built it into a business with revenues of US$100 million in 2021.
He established Terraform Labs in 2018 with Kwon Do-hyeong, who is currently under arrest in Montenegro for allegedly traveling on forged travel documents.
Shin’s family is well-connected and includes his grandfather Shin Jik-soo, former minister of justice of Korea, and his uncle Hong Seok-hyun, chairman of one of the country’s largest media groups, JoongAng Holdings.
The prosecutors have accused Shin of defrauding investors by promoting the Terra stablecoin as a potential payment measure, while knowing such services were prohibited.
However, Shin’s lawyers have denied the accusations, stating that financial authorities did not have a fixed position on the issue of crypto as a potential payment means at the time of Terra’s launch.
