SEC says Terraform Labs built a 'house of cards' as US civil fraud trial begins

FILE PHOTO: Do Kwon, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur, who created the failed Terra (UST) stablecoin, is taken to court in handcuffs, to face charges of forging official documents, in Podgorica, Montenegro, March 24, 2023. REUTERS/Stevo Vasiljevic/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon built a "house of cards" and lied to investors about the stability of a cryptocurrency whose collapse rippled through markets in 2022, a lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told a Manhattan jury as its civil fraud trial began on Monday.

The SEC accused Kwon and the Singapore-based blockchain company of misleading investors in 2021 about the stability of TerraUSD, a stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. The regulator also accused them of falsely claiming Terraform's blockchain was used in a popular Korean mobile payment app.