Terra’s Collapse: The Fallout Reaches a Prime Minister’s Workplace

• Montenegrin Prime Minister was an early investor in Terraform Labs.
• SEC paperwork reveal Spajic’s undisclosed $75,000 funding in LUNA.
• Spajic’s involvement raises questions on transparency and accountability.

Information media company, Vijesti reported that court docket paperwork launched by the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee revealed Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic as an early investor in Terraform Labs, the corporate behind the collapsed LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) tokens. The revelation has ignited controversy and raised questions on transparency and accountability.

The SEC court docket paperwork present Spajic invested $75,000 in April 2018 to buy 750,000 Luna tokens. At its peak, these tokens had been valued at $14 million.

Prime Minister Spajic’s funding got here simply days earlier than Terraform Labs was formally registered in Singapore on April 23, 2018. This revelation has reignited controversy across the failed crypto venture, which had already confronted vital scrutiny. Practically every week after Terraform Labs settled with the SEC, new findings from the April court docket doc highlighted Spajic’s involvement.

Subsequently, Spajic beforehand claimed he by no means personally invested in Terraform Labs. As a substitute, he acknowledged that Das Capital SG, a Singaporean firm he labored for from 2017 to 2020, had invested. Nonetheless, the SEC court docket paperwork record Spajic as an investor, exhibiting his direct contract with Terraform Labs dated April 17, 2018.

Terraform Labs was behind the now notorious LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) tokens. These tokens as soon as reached a mixed market cap of $2 billion earlier than their collapse in Could 2022. The collapse worn out practically $40 billion from the crypto market. Moreover, it led to the downfall of a number of crypto hedge funds that had supplied collateral to the agency.

In April 2024, a jury discovered Terraform Labs and co-founder Do Kwon responsible for defrauding traders. Kwon was arrested in March 2023 by worldwide regulation enforcement businesses after months on the run.

The surfacing of latest paperwork establishing a direct contract between Spajic and Terraform Labs may trigger issues for the prime minister. He didn’t disclose his private funding within the venture, which may increase questions on transparency and accountability.

Furthermore, the controversy provides one other layer of scrutiny to Terraform Labs’ troubled historical past. The failed crypto venture has had far-reaching penalties within the crypto ecosystem. Consequently, the revelations about Spajic’s involvement may have political ramifications, given his present place as prime minister.