Do Kwon Pleads Guilty to Terra Fraud, DOJ Will Not Seek Prison Sentence Greater Than 12 Years

Crypto Entrepreneur Do Kwon Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges Stemming From Crypto Crash

Disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Do Kwon pleaded guilty to two criminal counts of fraud on Tuesday in connection with the $40 billion crash of his TerraUSD and Luna coins in 2022.

In exchange for Kwon’s plea, federal prosecutors agreed to not seek a prison sentence of more than 12 years, and dropped seven other counts against him. Kwon’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11. On Tuesday, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer reiterated that the crypto entrepreneur still faces as many as 25 years of prison.

Kwon, who founded the crypto firm Terraform Labs, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and commodities fraud.

“I knowingly agreed with others to engage in a scheme to defraud—and indeed, in fact, did defraud—purchasers of cryptocurrency issued by my companies,” Kwon, clad in a yellow jumpsuit, read from a statement during Tuesday’s appearance in Manhattan’s federal courthouse.

SEC’s Peirce Says Market Will Sort Out Winners in Tokenization

Market forces will ultimately prove which forms of tokenizing securities and other real-world assets will win out, Securities and Exchange Commission member Hester Peirce said Tuesday.

“We’re willing to work with people who are taking different approaches,” Peirce said about tokenization in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We’re looking forward to working with folks to try those different models out and see what the markets like.”

Peirce noted it will remain critical that companies properly disclose the nature of the assets being tokenized. “It may be a security with different characteristics and that’s something that needs to be conveyed to investors,” she said.

Per Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Oracle: The Blockchain Emperor (Still) Has No Clothes

For the SEC, blockchain is the next big thing but for the tech giants, blockchain is not even a blip.

The SEC has consistently touted the transformative potential of blockchain to justify their enthusiasm and deregulation for digital assets. But the last five years of SEC filings and earnings calls from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Oracle paint a very different picture.

I used AI and good old fashioned Boolean searches (remember those) and found that even the mere mentions of the word “blockchain” by tech giants has dwindled significantly to almost nothing. More importantly, for Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Oracle, there’s hardly any real revenue tied to blockchain and per their own SEC filings, there never will be. The truly impactful technologies— like the Internet, cloud, smartphones, and AI — are front and center. Blockchain is nowhere.

Zillow Appeal Threatens to Curb Stock Drop Suits in Key Courts

Zillow Group Inc.‘s appeal of an investor suit is jeopardizing other class actions over large stock selloffs.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is expected to hear oral arguments about decertifying a stockholder class Thursday in a suit alleging the website misrepresented its house-flipping business prospects. A victory for Zillow could ward off similar proposed shareholder class actions, attorneys say, because it would mandate a stronger link between the alleged misstatement and the eventual market selloff.

“If the Ninth Circuit decertifies and holds that there needs to be a much closer connection between the corrective disclosure and the alleged misrepresentation, defendants in securities class actions—particularly in the Ninth Circuit—will have a much stronger argument to defeat class certification,” said Jesse Bernstein, co-chair of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP’s securities litigation practice.

‘Traffic-light’ dashboard lets PwC monitor office attendance

PwC has stepped up the monitoring of its UK employees’ office attendance with a dashboard that allows senior partners to track pass swipes and WiFi connections, sparking concern from some staff. […]

PwC told its UK staff last September that it would monitor their office attendance like it did billable hours and require them to work in the office or at a client site at least three days a week. Staff who breach the policy can face formal sanctions, with their performance evaluations and bonuses potentially affected, according to guidance for staff seen by the FT.

Staff show up as “amber” on the dashboard, which first went live for supervisors in April, if they dip below 60 per cent office attendance, and “red” if they fall below 40 per cent, according to the guidance.