While former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon sits in a Montenegrin jail and awaits word on a possible extradition, someone else will be running the company he cofounded.
Chris Amani, who previously served in a dual role as the company’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO in Kwon’s absence, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shortly after Kwon's arrest in March he stepped down as CEO, and in May he left his role as a company director to focus on “personal legal affairs,” according to a statement Terraform Labs gave to the Journal.
Amani, an American, takes the reins of a company famous for the implosion of its signature product, an algorithmic stablecoin called TerraUSD (UST) that cratered after a crypto bank run last year and ended up costing investors tens of billions of dollars.
For now, Amani said the company is not launching another stablecoin, but that it wants to create other products with real utility for users. “We have a vision for how we could salvage this, even though I think it’s going to be hard and it’s going to take a long time,” Amani told the Journal.
The 40-person company faces an uphill challenge to escape the looming shadow cast by Kwon, who'd been on the run for months before Montenegrin authorities arrested him in March. During this time, Amani said he continued to run Terraform Labs remotely. Kwon still owns the majority of the company’s shares.
Kwon was apprehended at the airport in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, in March for trying to use a forged Costa Rican passport to travel to Dubai.
The disgraced crypto founder and his former chief financial officer, Han Chang-joon, were sentenced to four months in prison after being convicted of document falsification in June. Kwon also faces criminal charges and a civil fraud lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. for his role in the collapse of TerraUSD. Both the U.S. and his native South Korea are pushing for his extradition. He has denied committing fraud.
“We wish Do the best and we hope that he’s able to clear himself of all charges," Amani told the Journal. "But while he’s incarcerated and while he’s facing his own legal challenges, it just makes sense for us to continue on without him."
