In a series of ongoing court trials linked to Terraform Labs’ fraud claims tied to the 2022 implosion of its TerraUSD stablecoin, one former employee testifies how working with Terraform was rife with pitfalls.
Brian Curran, former head of communications at Terraform, told a Manhattan federal jury on Monday that spearheading public relations for the company made him “angry.”
Curran tried to be “transparent” to users while doing PR for Terraform, however, the company asked him to write false posts. He further said that working with Do Kwon, the beleaguered founder of Terraform, was troublesome, a report from Law360 revealed.
“I was fairly angry, because I realized that he had tried to deceive me, to write a post that he knew to be false,” Curran replied to a question from SEC’s counsel Carina Cuellar.
In May 2021, the Terraform’s UST stablecoin lost its dollar peg, raising concerns among the community. Curran testified he wrote on X, that the dollar de-peg “just needs time to recalibrate,” which he knew was false.
Curran said it was a PR headache after the de-pegging triggered “infighting” online between Terraform, Kwon and the crypto community.
At the time, Jeff Kuan, former Terraform’s business development head flagged, “[Kwon] called members of the community cockroaches on Twitter.” Brian Curran chatted back to Kuan saying, “never going camping again lol.”
Curran told the jury that he left Terraform for good as he grew tired of operating in an information vacuum.
“Terra started depegging while I was in flight over the Pacific on a trip to meet co-workers in Singapore.” He added that the event left him “dazed and confused” upon touching down.
Kwon’s SEC Trial In NYC
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) trial against Do Kwon began on March 25. The trials follow Kwon’s release from a Montenegrin prison as the Balkan country’s Supreme Court debates his extradition location.
Kwon faces charges of violating the registration and anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. Kwon’s native South Korea first issued an arrest warrant in September 2022 for violating the country’s national markets law.
He was finally detained in Montenegro in March 2023, attempting to use a fake Costa Rican passport to fly Dubai.
