South Korean ruling party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun asserted that the country needs to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Terra-LUNA collapse, which affected over 280,000 people locally, in comments at the National Assembly’s parliamentary audit on the Financial Services Commission (FSC), South Korea’s top financial regulator.
See related article: South Korea’s investigation of Do Kwon ‘unfair’: Terraform Labs
Fast facts
- “Amongst investors [in Terra-LUNA], the MZ Generation is the biggest victim,” Yoon told FSC chairman Kim Joo-hyun in a query session. By MZ Generation, Yoon refers to younger investors labeled as millennials and Gen Z, born from the 1980s to early 2000s.
- “Investors hold some liability but the politicians who supported the [Terra] stablecoin without knowledge, government agencies that failed to prepare institutional safety nets, financial institutions that gave out loans without reviewing their repayment capabilities, and exchanges that only focused on making money, are all indirect conspirators of the situation,” Yoon said. “They need to share the responsibility for the damages.”
- Yoon called for a new investigation into Terra-LUNA with a special prosecutor, an independent counsel that is expected to ensure impartiality, to determine government authorities that may be liable for the crypto crash in May.
- Right-wing lawmaker Yoon has been keeping a close watch on the Terra-LUNA debacle and other crypto matters. In preparation of the parliamentary audit, Yoon announced that he will receive anonymous reports of crypto scams.
- Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin and sister cryptocurrency collapsed in May this year, blowing out around US$60 billion in crypto market capitalization.
- South Korean prosecutors have been investigating Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. and founder Kwon Do-hyung, or Do Kwon, under charges of fraud and violation of capital markets law among others after five local Terra investors filed a lawsuit against him in May.
See related article: Terra CEO Do Kwon to lose his passport within a month