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Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, was convicted in prison The Fed served 15 years on Thursday for orchestrating a $40 billion cryptocurrency scam — a significantly lighter sentence than the 25 years the FTX founder received. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) Last year, however, Kwon’s fraud caused almost four times the financial damage.
This disparity in sentencing highlights how court conduct, remorse and cooperation with authorities can significantly affect the outcomes of high-profile white-collar cases.
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Provisions
US Judge Paul Engelmayer, who presided over Cowan’s case in the Southern District of New York, called the Earth-Moon collapse “a fraud on an epic, generational scale.” He rejected both the prosecution’s recommendation of 12 years in prison as “unreasonably lenient” and the defense’s request for five years as “completely unreasonable and highly unreasonable”.
“Your crime caused real people to lose $40 billion in real money, not paper loss,” Engelmayer told Cowan, noting that there could have been as many as a million victims worldwide.
In contrast, Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced SBF to 25 years in prison in March 2024 for an $11 billion fraud, citing the defendant’s “extraordinary flexibility with the truth” and “a conspicuous absence of any real remorse.”
Why the difference?
Plead guilty in exchange for a trial
Kwan admittedIn August 2025, accused of fraud and conspiracy, accepting responsibility for misleading investors about the stability mechanisms of TerraUSD. In a letter to the court, he wrote: “I alone am responsible for everyone’s pain. Society looked to me to know the way, and I, in my arrogance, led them out.”
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As for SBF, he went to trial and maintained his innocence throughout. He argued that FTX was just going through a “liquidity crisis” and not a fraud. The jury took only four hours to find him guilty on all seven counts.
Conduct in court
Judge Kaplan found that SBF lied at least three times during his testimony. Kaplan described SBF’s performance on the platform as the most “uneven” he had seen in his nearly 30 years on the platform. “When he wasn’t lying, he was often evasive, incoherent, and avoiding questions,” Kaplan said.
The judge also found that SBF tried to falsify witnesses before the trial. He sent letters to former FTX general counsel Ryan Miller suggesting he “check things out with others.”
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As for Cowan, he listened to victim impact statements — 315 letters submitted to the court — and apologized directly. “Listening to the victims was painful and reminded me once again of the great harm I caused,” he told Judge Engelmayer.
Future legal exposure
The deciding factor in Kwan’s sentence was his pending trial in South Korea. He faces charges that could carry an additional prison term of up to 40 years. Judge Engelmayer explicitly took this issue into account when he wrote the sentence. Kwon will likely be extradited to face trial in his home country after his term in the United States ends.
SBF faces no similar foreign legal risks, making his 25-year prison sentence in the United States his primary sentence. However, he is actively fighting to have his conviction overturned. In November 2025, The SBF’s legal team filed an appealarguing that he “had believed himself guilty” before his trial. His lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, claims that the court withheld key evidence proving FTX doping and allowed partial treatment throughout the trial. The Second Circuit is expected to take several months to issue a decision.
| From When | Sam Bankman-Fried | |
| to govern | 15 years | 25 years |
| Estimated loss | 40 billion dollars | 11 billion dollars |
| call | Guilt | Sentenced to trial |
| sorry | Sorry to the victims | He showed no remorse |
| I’m sorry | A | 3 loads found |
| Witness Tampering | A | Yes |
| Additional fees | Up to 40 years in South Korea | A |
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The bigger picture
Both cases represent watershed moments in cryptocurrency law enforcement. Prosecutors said Let Kwon lose surpassed those caused by SBF, OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood, and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky combined.
The results of the sentence send a clear message to the cryptocurrency industry: cooperation and genuine remorse can significantly reduce prison time.
Cowan agreed to forfeit $19.3 million as part of a plea deal. He was also ordered to pay an $80 million fine and impose a lifetime ban on cryptocurrency transactions as part of a 2024 SEC settlement.
His request to serve his sentence in South Korea was denied.
