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Terraform Labs Founder Do Kwon Expected to Plead Guilty in U.S. Fraud Case

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Do Kwon, the South Korean crypto entrepreneur behind Terraform Labs, is expected to plead guilty in a U.S. federal fraud case tied to the 2022 collapse of his digital currencies TerraUSD and Luna, which wiped out an estimated $40 billion in value.

Court records revealed on Monday that U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer scheduled a hearing for Tuesday in Manhattan after being advised that Kwon may change his plea. Kwon had previously pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that included charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.

Kwon co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed TerraUSD, an algorithmic stablecoin, alongside its sister token Luna. The dramatic failure of the two cryptocurrencies in 2022 triggered widespread investor losses, shook global crypto markets, and sparked heightened regulatory scrutiny of digital assets.

Neither Kwon’s legal team nor the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office have issued statements in response to the latest court developments.

Apple Faces Shareholder Lawsuit Over Alleged Overstatement of AI Progress

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Apple (AAPL.O) was sued on Friday by shareholders in a proposed securities fraud class action accusing the company of overstating its progress in integrating advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant. The lawsuit claims this misrepresentation negatively impacted iPhone sales and Apple’s stock price.

The complaint covers shareholders who experienced significant losses, potentially amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, over the year ending June 9, 2025. During that period, Apple introduced several product features and aesthetic upgrades but kept AI advancements modest.

Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit names CEO Tim Cook, Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh, and former CFO Luca Maestri as defendants. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

Shareholders, led by Eric Tucker, argue that at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, the company implied that AI would play a major role in the iPhone 16. Apple launched “Apple Intelligence,” which was marketed as enhancing Siri’s power and user-friendliness. However, the plaintiffs contend that Apple did not have a functional prototype of AI-based Siri features and could not reasonably expect those features to be ready for the iPhone 16 launch.

The lawsuit states that the reality started to become apparent on March 7, 2025, when Apple announced delays to some Siri upgrades until 2026. This was further reinforced at the June 9 Worldwide Developers Conference when analysts expressed disappointment with Apple’s AI progress.

Since hitting a record high on December 26, 2024, Apple shares have fallen nearly 25%, erasing roughly $900 billion in market value.

The case is identified as Tucker v. Apple Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-05197.

Celsius Founder Alex Mashinsky Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Crypto Fraud

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Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of defunct crypto lender Celsius Network, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to securities and commodities fraud in a case that stands among the most severe stemming from the 2022 cryptocurrency market collapse.

U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan imposed the sentence, which also includes three years of supervised release and a $48.4 million forfeiture. The ruling comes after federal prosecutors accused Mashinsky, 59, of deceiving Celsius customers about the platform’s safety and artificially inflating the value of the CEL token, Celsius’ proprietary digital asset.

The prosecution sought at least 20 years of imprisonment, describing Mashinsky’s actions as a betrayal that caused billions in customer losses while he personally gained over $48 million.

“The case for tokenization and the use of digital assets is strong, but it is not a license to deceive,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a post-sentencing statement.

Mashinsky had asked for a sentence of just one year and one day, expressing remorse and a desire to make amends. His attorneys did not immediately provide comment following the sentencing.

Founded in 2017, Celsius was based in Hoboken, New Jersey, and promised high-yield returns, offering up to 17% interest on some crypto deposits. Like other lenders in the crypto space, Celsius attracted customers with the promise of easy lending and high returns while funneling deposits to institutional borrowers in hopes of profiting from the spread.

However, the model collapsed under the weight of falling crypto prices. In July 2022, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a $1.19 billion balance sheet deficit, after a customer run on deposits.

Mashinsky’s sentencing follows the high-profile conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving 25 years for fraud and is currently appealing. Mashinsky also faces ongoing civil lawsuits from the SEC, CFTC, FTC, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Born in Ukraine, Mashinsky immigrated to Israel and later moved to New York City in 1988, where he became a prominent tech entrepreneur before his fall from grace in the crypto world.