Montenegrin PM was One of the Earliest Terra (LUNA) Investors: SEC

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As a researcher, I find the recent revelation that Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic was an early investor in Terra (LUNA) tokens to be a significant development. The emergence of court documents detailing his investment in Terraform Labs back in 2018 has stirred up the crypto community and raised questions about transparency and ethical implications.

A recently uncovered court document from April, following Terraform Labs’ settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has brought attention to an early investment in Terra (LUNA) token by Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic.

As a researcher, I’ve come across an intriguing piece of information from Vijesti, a local media outlet. According to their report, I discovered that Spajic made an investment of $75,000 in Terraform Labs around April 2018. This investment resulted in the acquisition of approximately 750,000 Terra tokens. The company was officially registered in Singapore on April 23, 2018. I found it fascinating that this investment was made just before the registration and at a very early stage of the project. The tokens were purchased at an exceptionally low price of merely 10 cents each, which is typically the riskiest investment category.

The first round of fundraising for Terraform Labs, amounting to approximately $13.75 million, played a crucial role in the project’s genesis through its support of the initial stages of development and research. This financing attracted 14 individual investors, such as Spajic, and 10 businesses. The SEC Assistant Chief Accountant, Avron Elbaum, prepared a table detailing these contributors, which was subsequently submitted to a New York court.

Up until now, Spajic had consistently claimed that Das Capital SG, the Singaporean firm where he worked from 2017 to 2020, was the true investor. But the evidence presented by the SEC tells a different story. The filing reveals a contract dated April 17, 2018, directly between Spajic and Terraform Labs.

An Unknown Terra (LUNA) Loss

It’s intriguing that the price of Terra’s token surpassed $119 in early 2022, just before it plummeted to almost nothing. Had Prime Minister Spajic kept his 750,000 LUNA during this downturn, he would have suffered a significant loss of approximately $90 million.

Spajic and the Government Public Relations Service never disclosed the exact number of Luna tokens the prime minister possessed before the crash. However, based on Vijesti’s article, Spajic lamented about losing a significant sum of money to his confidants. Therefore, it can be inferred that Spajic probably still had some of the tokens when the market collapsed.

Terraform Labs, renowned for its cryptocurrencies Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST), experienced a significant market value of $2 billion at one point. However, the value of these tokens plummeted dramatically in May 2022, leading to a substantial loss of approximately $40 billion across the crypto market. Consequently, several crypto hedge funds faced insolvency due to their extensive investments in Terraform Labs.

In April of this year, a jury reached a verdict holding Terraform Labs and its co-founder, Do Kwon, accountable for defrauding investors. This decision came after Kwon’s arrest in March 2023 following several months on the run.

As an analyst, I would say: The recently surfaced documents revealing my personal investment in Terraform Labs could potentially bring about significant political consequences. My past failure to disclose this financial commitment may raise concerns regarding my openness and the ethical dimensions of my role in a contentious crypto project. If I were serving as Prime Minister, such an investment in a failed digital currency venture might erode public trust and challenge my political standing.

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2024-06-19 16:09