prison

According to Decrypt, although Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for causing the collapse of Terra, which resulted in approximately $40 billion in losses, the abandoned original chain Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) has not disappeared. A group of community members continues to maintain the network, hoping to achieve one of the greatest revivals in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.The report states that a core community member known by the pseudonym "Vegas" lost about $50,000 during the Terra collapse and has since been involved in operating validation nodes, governance proposals, and developer coordination. He expressed that despite facing long-term internal power struggles and fraud accusations, and even being maliciously reported to the authorities, he still believes LUNC has the potential to return to the top ten in the cryptocurrency industry.After the Terra collapse in 2022, Terraform Labs launched a new chain, Terra, through a hard fork, while the original chain was retained and renamed Terra Luna Classic. Subsequently, the community organization Terra Rebels took over the maintenance work and launched a series of proposals, including a 1.2% burn tax, in hopes of revitalizing the ecosystem. However, due to disputes over fund allocation and governance, Terra Rebels eventually disbanded, and several developers left one after another.Despite this, the community continues to advance the development of projects such as lending protocols, games, and meme coins, and attempts to restore the stablecoin peg mechanism. Data shows that LUNC has risen 17.3% in the past year, but has cumulatively fallen 28.7% since 2022, with a decline of 99.99% from its historical high of $119.Some community members stated that the shared trauma after the collapse has formed a bond similar to "family," and that price is no longer the only goal. "What if we could achieve one of the greatest comebacks in cryptocurrency history? It's like a last-ditch pass." said a community member.

According to the "Procuratorial Daily," Lin, Zeng, and Dai conspired to use virtual currency trading as a pretext. During the trading process, they secretly filmed the victim's digital wallet private key and, after the virtual currency was credited, secretly logged into the victim's wallet to reverse the transaction, transferring the related virtual currency back to their controlled accounts. The three committed the crime three times, causing the victim a total economic loss of 660,000 yuan.The first-instance court held that in the absence of a clear judicial interpretation regarding the valuation method of virtual currency and sentencing standards, it was inappropriate to directly determine the amount involved as particularly huge based on the victim's purchase amount of 660,000 yuan. Therefore, they sentenced the three based on "other serious circumstances," imposing prison terms ranging from eight years to five years and six months, along with fines. The Hanyang District Procuratorate of Wuhan City in Hubei Province subsequently filed an appeal, which was supported by the Wuhan City Procuratorate.The prosecution argued that the first-instance court applied the law incorrectly and imposed an excessively light sentence. Prosecutor Dai Wentao of the Wuhan City Procuratorate stated that in the case where the victim had a clear loss amount to refer to, it was contradictory and legally erroneous to claim that the value of virtual currency could not be determined. In judicial practice, using the resale price and transaction price as the basis for determining the amount of theft has become mainstream, and determining the value of virtual currency based on the actual cost paid by the victim has factual, legal, and practical basis.The Intermediate Court of Wuhan accepted the prosecution's opinion in the second instance, revoked the corresponding content of the original judgment, and changed the determination of the theft amount to particularly huge. It sentenced the principal offender Lin to ten years and six months in prison for theft, and sentenced the accomplices Zeng and Dai to eight years in prison each, along with fines.

According to Bloomberg, Andrew Left, the founder of the well-known short-selling firm Citron Research, has been found guilty of manipulating stock prices using dishonest social media posts. After a three-week trial in Los Angeles, the jury ruled that Left was guilty on 13 out of 17 charges, including one count of securities fraud.Prosecutors accused Left of illegally influencing stock prices and profiting quickly from explosive tweets about dozens of companies between 2018 and 2023, earning over $20 million from it. Left stated in court that he would appeal, claiming the verdict is an attack on free speech and innocent trading behavior. He faces over 20 years in prison and will be sentenced on August 31. The case has drawn close attention from the short-selling industry, with a Yale professor stating that this ruling will have a chilling effect on short sellers.

Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky submitted a motion to a New York court seeking to overturn his 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation. The documents show that Mashinsky chose to represent himself (pro se) after his lawyer withdrew, stating that his lawyer "stopped communicating with him," forcing him to submit documents to the court personally. He claims that there was "ineffective legal representation" in his previous defense and invokes the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine to question the legality of some evidence in the case.Mashinsky also accused Sam Bankman-Fried of attempting to "destroy Celsius" in the submitted materials and attributed market manipulation related to the CEL token to FTX. Additionally, he publicly shared text messages with former Celsius Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon, claiming that the latter had attempted a "hostile takeover" of the company. In 2025, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to commodity fraud and securities fraud and was sentenced to forfeit $48 million, while also required to pay $10 million in settlement to the Federal Trade Commission. Cohen-Pavon, who previously assisted the prosecution as a witness, has been sentenced to "time served" and paid over $1 million in fines.

According to CriptoNoticias, the Argentine government submitted a bill to Congress through the Ministry of Health aimed at preventing gambling addiction and regulating online gambling, which for the first time explicitly includes virtual asset service providers within the regulatory scope. The bill stipulates that banks, fintech companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, and wallet providers are prohibited from providing services or facilitating transactions for gambling platforms operating without a license in Argentina.The bill also proposes amendments to the criminal code, imposing a prison sentence of 2 to 4 years on individuals or companies that provide financial, technical, or digital asset services to these illegal platforms. Exchanges and cryptocurrency asset providers will be required to implement stricter due diligence, transaction monitoring, and KYC policies. The Central Bank of Argentina, the National Securities Commission, the National Communications Commission, and NIC Argentina will enhance inter-agency coordination to effectively block technical access and the flow of funds.

According to Cryptopolitan, the former CEO of the Singaporean crypto lending platform Hodlnaut, Zhu Juntao, has been charged with six counts of fraudulent misrepresentation for allegedly misleading users about the exposure to TerraUSD. Hodlnaut invested $317 million from user accounts into Terra's Anchor Protocol without disclosure, resulting in a loss of $189.7 million after the UST collapse. When the platform shut down in August 2022, it owed users approximately $281 million, with assets of only $88 million, creating a shortfall of about $193 million.Prosecutors allege that Zhu Juntao instructed employees to make false promises in official Telegram groups and emails during and after the UST collapse, including claims that the company had not invested in LUNA or UST and had not suffered losses. Zhu Juntao pleaded not guilty in court, and a pre-trial conference is scheduled for June 2026. If convicted, each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

According to The Block, the U.S. Department of Justice sentenced Ohio resident Rathnakishore Giri to nine years in prison for operating a long-running investment fraud scheme that defrauded investors of at least $10 million. Giri pleaded guilty in 2024 to a charge of telecommunications fraud. In a revised plea agreement submitted before the sentencing hearing, Giri admitted to continuing to solicit funds from investors even after pleading guilty.The Department of Justice stated that Giri falsely promised high returns and guaranteed the principal was risk-free, while in reality, he used funds from new investors to pay old investors, which is a typical Ponzi scheme. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission previously accused Giri of operating Bitcoin derivatives schemes through multiple entities since 2019 and initiated enforcement action in August 2022, with the Department of Justice filing five counts of telecommunications fraud against him in November 2022.

According to Bits.media, the Presnensky District Court in Moscow sentenced the former head of Binance Russia and co-founder of the Blum crypto platform, Vladimir Smerkis, to five years in prison. The court found him guilty of "large-scale fraud" as stipulated in Article 159, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.According to the prosecution, in June 2024, trader and crypto blogger Oleg Polunin requested Smerkis's help to drive traffic to his social media. Smerkis promised to bring in about 2 million new users but failed to fulfill his obligations after receiving over 8.8 million rubles, misappropriating the funds for personal use. The verdict has not yet taken effect and can be appealed.Smerkis was arrested a year ago. He served as the regional head of Binance from early 2022 until September 2023, and later announced the launch of the clicker game Blum with another former Binance regional manager; on the day of his arrest, the Blum team announced his departure.

ZachXBT posted on platform X, revealing that crypto KOL and former Fortnite professional player Yelo has been charged with money laundering for threat actors through his luxury car rental business in Miami, facing up to 30 years in prison.

Former Singapore Navy personnel Zhang Rongxuan (35 years old, phonetic) was sentenced to six years and ten months in prison after stealing 1.7 million Tether (nearly 2.3 million Singapore dollars) from a friend's cold wallet, which he spent on luxury watches, gambling, and paying off a mortgage.It is reported that Zhang Rongxuan was a member of the Naval Diving Unit at the time of the incident, holding the rank of captain. After getting to know the victim, he also co-managed a non-fungible token trading platform with friends, which is affiliated with Upstairs Research Pte Ltd and owned by DiGi Selection Holdings Pte Ltd. After security companies tracked the cryptocurrency wallet, Zhang Rongxuan admitted that he committed the crime due to suffering significant losses from the collapse of the FTX exchange.

The People's Court of Haidian District, Beijing, disclosed a case involving virtual currency "box opening." The defendant illegally obtained citizens' personal information through encrypted communication tools and other channels, unlawfully acquiring over 900 million pieces of information data, building a "social engineering database" website storing over 170 million pieces of citizens' personal information, and profiting by selling it in exchange for virtual currency. Additionally, they used encrypted communication tools to establish a "box opening hang person" group to publish illegal information that infringes on privacy.The court sentenced the principal offender, Lin, to 7 years in prison for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information and the crime of illegally using information networks, and imposed a fine of 70,000 yuan.

According to Forbes, SBF's early investment portfolio is being re-evaluated by the market, with some opinions suggesting that if he had not been imprisoned due to the FTX collapse, his venture capital layout could theoretically yield a wealth increase of up to about $100 billion.Before the FTX collapse, SBF had established an investment landscape covering several star companies, including Anthropic, SpaceX, Robinhood, and the AI programming tool Cursor, which was considered to have significant foresight.Industry insiders pointed out that he had bet on key tracks ahead of the AI wave, among which: Cursor recently reached a partnership with SpaceX, with a valuation potentially reaching $60 billion, and Anthropic's valuation is nearing $90 billion. Rory O'Driscoll, a partner at Scale Venture Partners, stated that SBF had laid out investments in several core AI companies before ChatGPT, "demonstrating a rare investment sensitivity." However, this "investment talent narrative" was ultimately completely altered by the FTX collapse.SBF is currently serving a 25-year sentence for misappropriating over $8 billion in customer funds. At his peak, his personal wealth reached about $24 billion, and he made it onto the Forbes 400 list. Today, his venture capital capabilities are intertwined with his history of financial crime, making him one of the most controversial cases in cryptocurrency history.

According to Forbes, a U.S. court sentenced Robert Dunlap, the operator of the cryptocurrency scam Meta-1 Coin, to 23 years in prison. He was accused of defrauding approximately 1,000 investors through a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment project from 2018 to 2023, with the amount involved exceeding $20 million.According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Dunlap claimed that the "Meta-1 Coin" he issued was backed by $44 billion in gold reserves and $1 billion worth of artworks by Picasso, Dali, Van Gogh, etc., and promised a maximum return rate of 224,923%, while providing investors with forged audit documents and insurance materials.Investigations revealed that the so-called gold and art assets did not exist, and the "Meta Exchange" website he built used automated trading bots to create the illusion of profits. The related tokens were never actually issued on-chain. Investor funds were subsequently used to purchase luxury items, including Ferraris.It is worth noting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had already filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Dunlap in 2020, but he continued to operate the project until he was criminally charged in 2024. The FBI stated that the case "destroyed the wealth and trust accumulated by many victims over the years."

The South Korean prosecution has formally requested the court to sentence the former CEO of the cryptocurrency platform Delio, Jeong Sang-ho, to 20 years in prison, accusing him of committing large-scale economic fraud. In the closing statement at the Southern District Court of Seoul, the prosecution cited the local economic crime aggravated punishment law, directly pointing out that the suspect had long deliberately deceived and falsely advertised, causing approximately 2,800 investors' funds to be trapped and difficult to redeem.The prosecution pointed out that the defendant had a clear subjective intent to defraud, the losses involved were enormous, and he subsequently refused to cooperate with the investigation and deliberately shirked responsibility, continuously exacerbating the losses and difficulties faced by the victims. Therefore, they are seeking a strict sentence according to the law.

According to the Los Angeles Times, 22-year-old Evan Tangeman from Newport Beach was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for money laundering for a young fraud gang.Tangeman admitted that the gang laundered at least $3.5 million, which was obtained by stealing over $263 million in cryptocurrency from investors through social engineering tactics such as impersonating employees of cryptocurrency trading platforms. Tangeman's compensation included luxury sports cars like Lamborghinis and Porsches. Federal agents seized a black 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost (worth over $300,000) and a Porsche GT3 RS from his home.The gang is referred to as the "crypto kids," consisting of teenagers who used the stolen funds to rent luxury mansions and private jets, purchase luxury goods, and spend up to $500,000 in a single night at nightclubs. Tangeman also instructed others to destroy digital devices after gang members were arrested.

According to The Block, a U.S. court sentenced a woman from Saipan to 71 months in prison for her involvement in a Bitcoin-related fraud scheme that affected multiple elderly victims.The report stated that the defendant induced the victims to invest in Bitcoin under false pretenses by establishing a trusting relationship with them. The case was identified as a fraud scheme targeting multiple individuals.

According to Cointelegraph, 22-year-old resident Evan Tangeman from California was sentenced to 70 months in prison on Friday for participating in a crime that involved stealing approximately $263 million in cryptocurrency from victims through social engineering scams and burglary.According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Tangeman pleaded guilty to related charges in December 2025 and admitted to assisting members of the criminal organization in laundering at least $3.5 million in illegal funds. The DOJ stated that in addition to imprisonment, he was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 22-year-old Evan Tangeman from Newport Beach, California, was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release by a federal court in Washington, D.C. for his involvement in an interstate social engineering crime group that assisted in laundering at least $3.5 million.The crime group has been operating since October 2023, stealing over $263 million in cryptocurrency through hacking, social engineering, and other means. Most members are unemployed youths, either minors or under 20 years old, originating from online gaming platforms. Tangeman was responsible for converting the stolen cryptocurrency into fiat currency and leasing luxury homes for group members in places like Los Angeles and Miami, and he also received luxury cars such as Bentleys and Lamborghinis as payment. After the incident, Tangeman instructed his accomplices to destroy digital devices to eliminate evidence. The case is being jointly investigated by the FBI's Washington, Los Angeles, and Miami field offices along with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and so far, 9 individuals involved have pleaded guilty.

According to South Korean media Newsis, a company finance employee in their 20s was sentenced to 3 years in prison by the Busan District Court for embezzling funds for cryptocurrency investments.The court found that between 2021 and 2025, they transferred company funds to personal accounts approximately 680 times, embezzling a total of about 570 million won, and used the related funds for trading cryptocurrencies, overseas travel, and living expenses; they also forged company deposit trust balance certificates to cover up the crime.