NEW YORK — Cryptocurrency mogul Do Kwon is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for misleading investors who lost billions when his company’s crypto ecosystem collapsed in 2022.

Kwon, known by some as “the cryptocurrency king,” pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court in August to fraud charges stemming from Terraform Labs’ $40 billion crash.

The company had touted its TerraUSD as a reliable “stablecoin” — a kind of currency typically pegged to stable assets to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices. But prosecutors say it was all an illusion that came crumbling down, devastating investors and triggering “a cascade of crises that swept through cryptocurrency markets.”

Kwon, who hails from South Korea, has agreed to forfeit over $19 million as part of the plea deal.

While federal sentencing guidelines would recommend a prison term of about 25 years, prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Kwon to 12 years. They cited his guilty plea, the fact that he faces further prosecution in Korea and that he has already served time in Montenegro while awaiting extradition.

“Kwon’s fraud was colossal in scope, permeating virtually every facet of Terraform’s purported business,” prosecutors wrote in a recent memo to the judge. “His rampant lies left a trail of financial destruction in their wake.”

Kwon’s attorneys asked that the sentence not exceed five years, arguing in their own memo that his conduct stemmed not from greed, but hubris and desperation.

In a letter to the judge, Kwon wrote, “I alone am responsible for everyone’s pain. The community looked to me to know the path, and I in my hubris led them astray,” while adding, “I made misrepresentations that came from a brashness that is now a source of deep regret.”

Authorities said investors worldwide lost money in the downfall of the Singapore crypto firm, which Kwon co-founded in 2018. Around $40 billion in market value was erased for the holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister currency, Luna, after the stablecoin plunged far below its $1 peg.

Kwon was extradited to the U.S. from Montenegro after his March 23, 2023, arrest while traveling on a false passport in Europe.

NEW YORK — South Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Hyeong Kwon pleaded not guilty Thursday to a freshly unsealed indictment released in time for his first U.S. court appearance.

Kwon entered the plea in Manhattan federal court two days after his extradition from Montenegro.

The indictment alleges that the man dubbed by some as “the cryptocurrency king” lied to investors from 2018 to 2022 to fool them into pouring money into Terraform Labs, the Singapore crypto firm he cofounded.

Authorities say investors worldwide were harmed by the $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency.

The May 2022 collapse came despite the company’s claim that TerraUSD was a “stablecoin” that could be relied upon.

Kwon did not speak during his court appearance, except to acknowledge that he understood English. His lawyer, Andrew Chesley, entered not guilty pleas to two separate versions of the indictment charging him with conspiracy, along with commodities, securities and wire fraud. A money laundering charge was added Thursday.

Chesley and another defense lawyer, David Patton, declined comment as they emerged from the courtroom. Their client was returned to a federal jail after the lawyers consented to his detention.

The superseding indictment accused Kwon of deceiving investors by telling them that Terraform had developed novel reliable financial technologies enabling it to turn blockchain technology into a self-contained decentralized financial world with its own money, payment system, stock market and savings bank.

“In fact,” the indictment said, “Kwon’s constructed financial world was built on lies and manipulative and deceptive techniques used to mislead investors, users, business partners, and government regulators” about Terraform’s business.

“Behind the scenes, core Terraform products did not work as Kwon advertised, and were manipulated to create the illusion of a functioning and decentralized financial system in order to lure investors,” it added.

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is due in court Tuesday on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. An indictment says the music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.”

Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs, 54, would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to get his client released from custody.

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The indictment alleges Combs hit, kicked and threw objects at victims, and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. It says Combs also threw people around, choked and shoved them.

Prosecutors say his employees and associates witnessed his violence and, rather than intervening, helped him cover it up, including by preventing victims from leaving, and locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee.

The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them, and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.