A document recently submitted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to a New York court includes a list of 81 initial investors in Terraform Labs, with Prime Minister Milojko Spajić named among them, Vijesti, a local newspaper, reported on Tuesday.
Spajić had claimed that he and a financial company he worked for in 2018 invested in Terraform Labs. However, the newly disclosed document shows that the prime minister personally purchased 750,000 Luna coins, while the name of the company was not included in the document.
He bought the coins for 10 cents each. Their price soared to $119 per coin in April 2022 before it collapsed in just a month and became virtually worthless. If he had sold the coins at the peak price, he could have made nearly $90 million. Conversely, if his investment failed, he would have lost $75,000.
The prime minister had claimed he incurred huge losses from the investment. The newspaper assumed that if Spajić suffered significant losses as he claimed, he might have sued Kwon. The prime minister's office did not answer questions regarding whether he filed a suit and how many coins he held before the crash.
Kwon fled to Singapore in April 2022, just before the Terra-Luna crash, and then went into hiding. He subsequently entered Montenegro via Serbia and was arrested in March last year at a local airport for possessing a forged passport.
This is not the first time that allegations involving Spajić and Kwon have come to light. Just before the general election in June 2023, claims emerged that Kwon had illegally provided political funds to Spajić.
Dritan Abazović, then prime minister and Spajić’s political rival, revealed that he received a handwritten letter from Kwon, stating that Kwon had been acquainted with Spajić since 2018 and had supported him politically. Kwon denied this allegation after Spajić won the election.
It was later confirmed that Spajić and Kwon met in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2022, during a period when Kwon was under an Interpol Red Notice.
Montenegro-based civic movement group URA has called for Spajić’s resignation and a thorough investigation into him.
reporter
Kim Joo-heon
jhkim123@ajunews.com
