Montenegrin PM’s Secret Investment in Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs
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Written by
Yana Levkovich - Updated 2024-06-20 05:47:45
Nearly a week after Terraform Labs reached a settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), new details from an April court document have reignited another controversy surrounding the failed crypto project.
SEC Exposes Montenegrin PM as Early Terra Investor
A report from Montenegrin media outlet Vijesti disclosed that Prime Minister Milojko Spajic, who assumed office in October 2023, invested $75,000 in Singapore-based Terraform Labs in April 2018. This investment was used to purchase 750,000 Terra (LUNA) tokens.
According to the report, Spajic was among the initial investors, making his investment just days before Terraform Labs was officially registered in Singapore on April 23, 2018.
The disclosure came from a court document filed by the SEC. Before these documents were revealed, the Montenegrin prime minister maintained that he never personally invested in Terraform Labs.
Instead, he claimed that Das Capital SG, a Singaporean firm he worked for from 2017 to 2020, made the investment. However, the SEC court documents list Spajic as one of the first investors, showing a contract dated April 17, 2018, bearing his name.
Terraform Labs’ $40 Billion Meltdown
Terraform Labs created the LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) crypto tokens, which once reached a market capitalization of $2 billion. However, the tokens' collapse in May 2022 erased nearly $40 billion from the crypto market. This collapse not only devastated the crypto ecosystem but also led to the downfall of several crypto hedge funds that had used these tokens as collateral.
In April 2024, a jury found Terraform Labs and its co-founder, Do Kwon, guilty of defrauding investors in a civil case brought by the SEC. Kwon was arrested in March 2023 by international law enforcement agencies after evading capture for several months.
The emergence of new documents establishing a direct investment contract between Spajic and Terraform Labs could pose significant issues for the prime minister. He had not previously disclosed his personal financial involvement in the project, which raises questions about his transparency and potential conflicts of interest.
These findings are likely to generate further scrutiny and debate, both within Montenegro and in the broader crypto community. As more information comes to light, the implications for Spajic's political career and the ongoing investigations into Terraform Labs may become more profound.
