A U.S. court on Thursday sentenced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to 15 years in prison for fraud tied to the collapse of his digital assets company, a failure that wiped out $40 billion in investor money and rattled global crypto markets.

Kwon was sentenced in New York, where he pleaded guilty in August after an international manhunt that stretched across Asia and Europe. He still faces separate fraud charges in his native South Korea.

The 34-year-old’s firm, Terraform Labs, created TerraUSD, a cryptocurrency marketed as a stablecoin — a token meant to maintain a steady value by being pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar.

Kwon promoted TerraUSD and its companion token Luna as revolutionary tools in a booming industry, drawing billions in investments and generating intense international attention.

South Korean media hailed him as a “genius,” and thousands of retail investors rushed to back his company. In 2019, he appeared on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia list.

But despite the hype and heavy investment, TerraUSD and Luna collapsed in May 2022 in a swift and catastrophic breakdown.

Experts later said the project resembled a pyramid scheme, leaving many investors with devastating losses.

Kwon left South Korea before the implosion and spent months evading authorities.

He was arrested in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, as he tried to board a flight to Dubai using a fake Costa Rican passport.

Montenegro extradited him to the United States last year.

‘Elaborate schemes’

After the sentencing, U.S. prosecutors said Kwon misrepresented the stability and structure of his products to attract buyers, including American firms.

At their peak in spring 2022, TerraUSD and Luna together had a market value of more than $50 billion.

“Do Kwon devised elaborate schemes to mislead investors and inflate the value of Terraform’s cryptocurrencies for his own benefit,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said.

Prosecutors said Kwon sought “political protection” from several countries as the crisis unfolded. They cited a recorded conversation in which he told an associate his strategy for handling investigators was to “tell them to fuck off.”

Kwon was also ordered to forfeit more than $19 million in proceeds from his crimes.

The Justice Department said he may be allowed to serve part of his sentence in South Korea, but only after completing at least half of it in the United States.

The case comes as cryptocurrencies face mounting regulatory scrutiny following a series of market scandals, including high-profile exchange failures.

Kwon’s dramatic rise and downfall have drawn comparisons to Elizabeth Holmes, the convicted founder of Theranos.