‘Massive’ Trove of Evidence Pushes Do Kwon Trial to January 2026

Do Kwon Criminal Trial Set for 2026 as Lawyers Deal with ‘Massive’ Trove of Evidence

Terraform Labs co-founder and former CEO Do Kwon’s criminal fraud trial in the U.S. has been tentatively scheduled for next January, allowing prosecutors and Kwon’s defense attorneys adequate time to review the “massive” six-terabyte trove of data expected to be produced during the discovery process.

During an initial hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, lead prosecutor Jared Lenow told the court that the government expected to face additional delays due to challenges accessing encrypted information and unlocking four cell phones provided by Montenegrin authorities when they extradited Kwon to the U.S. on Dec. 31st. Lenow added that the government must also translate extracted material from Kwon’s native Korean.

“Sounds like we’re going to be backing up a U-Haul to the Southern District,” District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) quipped on Wednesday.

Kraken Unlikely to Revive Major Questions Defense Against SEC

Cryptocurrency platform Kraken during a court hearing Wednesday appeared unlikely to revive a key legal defense in its battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over whether it should have registered as a securities broker.

Judge William H. Orrick III said he had already determined in a prior ruling that Kraken couldn’t invoke the major questions doctrine, a legal principle that says agencies lack regulatory power over important economic issues unless Congress explicitly designated that authority.

Musk’s Tesla Board Pay Case Nets $176 Million Lawyer Fee

Tesla Inc. must pay $176 million in legal fees to the shareholder attorneys who challenged four years of pay for its board of directors, including Elon Musk, a judge ruled Wednesday.

A Delaware judge signed off on a settlement worth up to $919 million, resolving the lawsuit by a pension fund that challenged the board’s compensation from 2017 to 2020, and awarded the fees to McCarter & English LLP, Fields Kupka & Shukurov LLP, and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP. The ruling by Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick came the same day Musk formally appealed her landmark decision in a separate case last year voiding a record $56 billion CEO pay package given to the tech titan in 2018.

The settlement in the board pay case called for directors including Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, Musk’s brother Kimbal, and a son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch to return stock and options worth up to $735 million and forgo three years of pay allegedly worth $184 million. McCormick, chief judge of Delaware’s Chancery Court, called the accord “more than reasonable.”

$5 Wrench Attack

If you do financial crimes, the government might put you in prison and take your money. If your money is in a bank, the government can go to the bank with a court order saying it can take your money, and the bank will cheerfully hand over the money. (If it didn’t, it would get in trouble.) If your money is in Bitcoin, though, there is no one for the government to go to with a court order: Your money is on a decentralized, censorship-resistant blockchain, impervious to the demands of the government.

This is somewhat less appealing than people sometimes think, though, because the government can just come to you with that court order, and say “hand over your Bitcoin or we’ll throw you back in jail.” Only you have the private key, but the government has the jail….

DLA Piper Adds Former Verizon GC Amid In-House Hiring Spree

Frantz’s move to DLA Piper’s New York office marks at least the fifth Big Law hire of a senior in-house lawyer this week, following moves to Husch Blackwell, Squire Patton Boggs, Sheppard Mullin, and Davis Wright Tremaine.[…]

Macrae recruiter Jon Truster said he’s seeing senior in-house attorneys join Big Law firms at a higher rate as the compensation rift between Big Law and in-house widens.

Much of firms’ recent interest in in-house talent has been focused on funds such as private equity funds, real estate funds and private credit funds, Truster continued, as law firms hope a newly hired partner can bring in work from their former employer.