The co-founder of Terraform Labs and nine people have been charged in South Korea

The indictment of ten Terraform Labs employees, including co-founder Hyun-seong Shin, comes after an 11-month inquiry into Terra’s demise.

According to reports, the financial crimes unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office accused Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-seong and nine other people for the collapse of the Terra stablecoin ecosystem. 

After an 11-month investigation, the ten persons were reportedly accused on accusations of fraud, breach of trust, and embezzlement and referred to trial. According to KBS World, a Korean daily, the prosecutor’s office believes the individuals implicated in the collapse collected unlawful earnings totaling over $350 million (460 billion won).

Shin is accused of deceiving investors and falsely selling the goods, resulting in large losses despite knowing the idea was unworkable. Prosecutors have also seized the indicted individuals’ assets, which are estimated to be worth $180 million (246.8 billion won).

The prosecutor’s prosecution comes only days after a district court in Seoul ruled that the Luna (LUNA) token is not a security and is not covered by the Capital Markets Act. The court previously denied the prosecution’s 10 demands for charging Shin with violating security law.

Shin and nine other executives were indicted just a month ago in Montenegro, following the arrest of former CEO Do Kwon. Prosecutors in Montenegro charged Kwon with document forgery. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also charged Kwon with multiple counts of securities fraud.

Terra was one of the early cryptocurrency ecosystems to popularise the concept of algorithmic stablecoins. However, the native stablecoin, TerraClassicUSD (USTC), de-pegged from its dollar value in May 2022, bringing the $40 billion ecosystem crashing down.