[HN Gopher] S Korean crypto-boss Do Kwon to be extradited to US
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       S Korean crypto-boss Do Kwon to be extradited to US
        
       Author : ceejayoz
       Score  : 69 points
       Date   : 2024-12-27 17:33 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | itake wrote:
       | It would be nice if everyone that held him up (YouTubers and
       | influencers) also saw similar legal actions
        
         | sfmike wrote:
         | i actually disagree with this philosophy. If you are a small
         | business and you co market or collaborate with another and have
         | no idea about their ethics should you see legal action for them
         | being illicit in any way? How would a youtuber be able to audit
         | and actually get enough information to determine a massive
         | company wasn't above board.
        
           | tekno45 wrote:
           | if you're going to tell people to buy stuff, make sure its
           | legit stuff before advertising it.
           | 
           | Youtubers aren't indie anymore, they're businesses.
        
             | dewey wrote:
             | They are YouTubers not auditors, even auditors have a hard
             | time figuring out if companies are legit or not (Wirecard).
             | Why would a YouTuber or influencer be able to do that task
             | as a side thing when getting advertising deals?
        
               | taormina wrote:
               | Maybe they should take advertising deals from reputable
               | companies? And skip the scam coins? And here's a hint,
               | they are all scam coins. Promoting a crypto project is
               | just a bad idea.
        
               | dgfitz wrote:
               | There's no way the hawk tuah girl was running an
               | illegitimate coin scam. The premise was so solid!
        
               | uniclaude wrote:
               | In this specific case it was obvious that Luna was based
               | on dubious economics. It didn't require auditor skills.
               | Barely high school economics. If YouTubers are not blamed
               | for promoting scams without appropriate disclaimers, the
               | crypto industry will grow the wrong way. Making the
               | promoters responsible for this would help legitimate
               | projects.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Please don't hold me liable for spreading misinformation
               | that I have no ability to verify but just trust me
               | mkay!!!
               | 
               | Those poor little YouTubers get no sympathy from me.
        
               | Smithalicious wrote:
               | I understand your point, but I still don't think "I
               | couldn't tell whether this was bullshit or not but I got
               | paid a lot to say it" should be a viable defence.
               | Everything with a healthy dose of nuance in the real
               | world though of course.
        
           | itake wrote:
           | Imagine if the YouTuber was advertising a blandly illegal
           | product, should the be immune too?
           | 
           | I hate it when one person in organization gets in trouble,
           | and everyone else gets away Scott free
        
         | tremarley wrote:
         | This would be reasonable if Terra was a clear scam. But it
         | wasn't.
         | 
         | Terra was a successful blockchain.
         | 
         | Investors lost money and they had to blame the leader.
        
           | itake wrote:
           | how is what do did different from what marketers did?
           | 
           | I think building something interesting, but not marketing it
           | to investors, should be legal/ok, but the moment you start
           | telling the story of this product being a safe 20% return
           | investment is when you need to get in trouble.
        
           | thot_experiment wrote:
           | "successful blockchain"
           | 
           | Ponzi schemes are often successful until they aren't.
        
             | caminante wrote:
             | The parent also claimed a false premise: Do Kwon wasn't
             | running a "clear" scam.
             | 
             | PAYING* 4.5 billion in SEC fines for FRAUD and running
             | around with forged passports check that box for me.
             | 
             | *edit: AFAIK, the firm is going through bankruptcy and
             | hasn't necessarily paid anything yet.
        
             | grecy wrote:
             | The NY stock exchange will be successful right up until it
             | isn't, the only difference is that it's backed by a very
             | powerful military.
        
           | teractiveodular wrote:
           | "Successful" seems a rather generous description. If an
           | apartment building is built on quicksand and collapses
           | overnight, are the people who bought apartments the ones to
           | blame?
        
             | stouset wrote:
             | At some point if you're buying your apartment in a vast
             | field of quicksand surrounded by hundreds of other sinking
             | and sunk buildings... yes?
        
             | neilv wrote:
             | I think "successful blockchain" means like "successful
             | crime".
        
             | rafaelmn wrote:
             | If you are buying in a region entirely located on
             | quicksand, with the intent of selling it off for more
             | before it sinks - yes.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | What happens if the developer has built a fake level that
               | hides the quicksand so that you don't find out about
               | until later?
        
             | paxys wrote:
             | Let's not pretend that people who put money into such
             | crypto "investments" don't know exactly what is going on.
             | The goal is always to pull money out before the inevitable
             | collapse and leave some other sucker holding the bag. And
             | if you get too greedy and don't manage to do it in time
             | just cry fraud and turn to the government for help. After
             | hundreds of such high profile incidents this is still
             | regularly happening today (see the "Hawk Tuah coin" for
             | example). I have no sympathy for anyone involved in these
             | scams, whether perpetrator or victim.
        
           | Mistletoe wrote:
           | I specifically remember that time and anyone that believed
           | 20% APY could go on forever was either stupid or fooling
           | themselves. And when you said this you were attacked so I've
           | never had a bit of sympathy for them.
        
         | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
         | I wonder what the legal line is that makes speech or
         | affiliation into aiding and abetting?
        
           | caminante wrote:
           | Bar is low, but somewhat vague. One example is anti-touting
           | law [0] where you can't pimp a security and not disclose
           | incentives.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.afslaw.com/perspectives/alerts/crypto-anti-
           | touti....
        
       | yongjik wrote:
       | ...and there was much rejoicing in South Korea.
       | 
       | (Actually kidding. South Korea is going through too much shit
       | right now to care about Do Kwon. But if times were simpler, there
       | definitely would have been much rejoicing. We don't trust our own
       | court much, when it comes to white-collar crimes.)
       | 
       | I hope he enjoys his long, long stay in America's prison system.
        
       | tremarley wrote:
       | Do Kwon was accused of misleading investors.
       | 
       | Has anyone been able to work out how he misled people yet?
        
         | saxonww wrote:
         | Presumably, we'll find out now that he's being extradited to
         | stand trial here in the US.
         | 
         | The complaint is here: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-
         | litigation/distributions-har...
        
         | caminante wrote:
         | His stablecoin claims failed. He lied about other firms (Chai)
         | using his tech.
         | 
         | NY is hunting him for wire fraud and a few other criminal
         | charges.
        
         | lazzlazzlazz wrote:
         | Yes, even a cursory review of the evidence is pretty clear.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | His problem is that he's one person instead of being an
         | institution that mislead people about mortgages
        
       | guybedo wrote:
       | Third episode in the trilogy "The Lord of the Rugs".
       | 
       | Episode III: The Return of the Kwon
        
       | miki123211 wrote:
       | Why is it that the founders of these global companies seem to be
       | extradited to the US so often, but almost never to other
       | countries?
       | 
       | Let' say you make a huge pirate site (like Kim Dotcom's
       | Megaupload), serving copyright-infringing content from many
       | different countries around the world. Why is the US more entitled
       | to having you in their prisons than, let's say, Czechia, Ecuador
       | or Malaysia?
       | 
       | Is it just imperialism, or is there a more sensible explanation
       | for it?
        
         | Scoundreller wrote:
         | Most extradition agreements are bidirectional, so it's really a
         | question of why Czechia, Ecuador or Malaysia aren't asking
         | courts to extradite someone as much.
         | 
         | My understanding is that these agreements basically require the
         | other country to put the case to court (as long as the act was
         | illegal in both places).
         | 
         | But a solid question of how to handle multiple requestors but
         | there's only one body to go around.
        
         | gexla wrote:
         | Maybe because the other countries haven't created the same
         | regulation regime for the things they have been picked up on?
         | The US just puts together the cases and the other countries
         | comply?
        
         | snakeyjake wrote:
         | When it comes to international crime, nations may only have a
         | fraction the resources for their justice systems and will
         | explicitly defer to the US because not only will the US often
         | prosecute more aggressively, the Department of Justice has the
         | money to outlast wealthy defendants' delay tactics.
         | 
         | For example, UK's Ministry of Justice has 1/6th the financial
         | resources of the US's Department of Justice.
         | 
         | One notable example of this is with child pornography
         | prosecutions. Many countries do not have a dedicated child
         | pornography specialist units capable of digital forensics and
         | analysis where the US does. So various international ministries
         | and departments of justice will team up with the US, feeding
         | info back to Virginia and even permanently stationing personnel
         | there to act as liaisons, during very complex child pornography
         | investigations.
         | 
         | Additionally, many countries will threaten extradition to the
         | US to gain plea deals.
         | 
         | Finally, you may have missed the final paragraph:
         | 
         | >The former finance officer of Terraform Labs, Hon Chang-joon,
         | was extradited to South Korea in February, after serving four
         | months in prison in Montenegro over fraud charges.
         | 
         | South Korean imperialism?
        
       | xg15 wrote:
       | I guess it's Don't Kwon then...
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-27 23:01 UTC)