Broker in Terra-Luna Scandal Receives Suspended Prison Sentence

A broker who arranged a request for favors in the financial sector at the request of Shin Hyunseong, the former CEO of Chai Corporation and a key figure in the Terra-Luna incident, has received a suspended prison sentence in the first trial.

On August 26, Judge Kim Sungeun of the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Mr. Ha (53), who was tried on charges of receiving compensation for influence peddling under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, to 1 year and 6 months in prison, suspended for 2 years. The court also ordered 80 hours of community service and the forfeiture of criminal proceeds amounting to 156 million won.

Mr. Ha was indicted on charges of receiving 210,000 Luna coins as compensation for brokering a request to bank vice presidents and others for the approval of firm banking, at the request of former CEO Shin.

Former CEO Shin is the co-founder of Terraform Labs along with Kwon Do-hyung, who has been indicted in the United States, and oversaw the Terra Project.

At the time, Shin was promoting the Terra Project, a cryptocurrency-based payment system, and needed firm banking approval to implement a simple payment service. However, financial authorities were negative toward services related to virtual assets.

The court explained the sentencing by stating, "The defendant's actions severely undermined the financial order, which is based on the fairness and trustworthiness of financial institutions and their employees, and are therefore highly blameworthy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.