Montenegro prime minister reportedly an early investor in defunct Terraform Labs Montenegro prime minister reportedly an early investor in defunct Terraform Labs
The Montenegro prime minister has not publicly disclosed any investment with Terraform.
2 min read
Updated: Jun. 19, 2024 at 2:42 pm UTC
Lukasz Kobus - European Commission / CC BY 4.0 / Wikimedia. Remixed by CryptoSlate
Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milojko Spajić was an early investor in the failed Terra Luna coin and may have lost millions to the ecosystem’s implosion in 2022, according to recent court documents filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Before becoming prime minister, Spajić was a crypto entrepreneur. In April 2018, just before Terraform Labs launched in Singapore, he invested $75,000 in the company, making him the 16th of 81 early investors. For his investment, he received 750,000 LUNA tokens at 10 cents each.
At its peak, LUNA’s value soared to $199 per token before crashing in 2022. This could mean Spajić lost over $140 million during this collapse. However, he likely sold some of his holdings and profited before the collapse.
This revelation is surprising since Spajić has never claimed to be a victim of the LUNA crash. In previous statements, he mentioned that a company he worked for was defrauded of $75,000, not his investment.
“Do Kwon is a swindler who defrauded millions, including my friends and the company I worked for, which invested in this project in early 2018,” Spajić said.
Terraform Labs is behind the algorithmic UST stablecoin, whose collapse erased almost $40 billion from the crypto market.
This discovery adds a new twist to the legal troubles of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon in Montenegro. Kwon was convicted and sentenced for using a forged passport and is awaiting extradition to either the US or South Korea.
Meanwhile, Terraform Labs and Kwon have agreed to settle with the SEC for $4.47 billion. The company will cease operations, and Kwon will be permanently banned from the crypto industry. The company CEO, Chris Amani, also urged the community to take over the Terra blockchain, saying:
“The community will need to take over ownership of the chain. I believe there are a couple teams and devs who want to do this and you should be seeing information in the forums soon.”
Terraform Labs is already in bankruptcy, and with assets valued at around $150 million, it is unclear how they will raise the settlement funds.
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Oluwapelumi Adejumo
Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.
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Terra is a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to power price-stable global payments systems.
Terraform Labs
Terraform Labs is a startup that created Terra, a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins.
Do Kwon began his professional journey as an engineer, contributing to tech giants Apple and Microsoft.