SEC Probes Jump Crypto President Over Secret Terraform Deal

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has probed Jump Crypto president Kanav Kariya’s involvement in the civil lawsuit against Terraform Labs.

SEC is looking into whether Kariya engaged in a secret agreement with Terraform Lab’s founder Do Kwon during the depegging and crash of Terra (UST) stablecoin in May 2021.

According to a Terraform personality FatMan, the agency questioned Kariya On November 8, where the Jump president mostly avoided answering agency’s questions by pleading the Fifth.

In a deposition with the SEC, Kanav Kariya from Jump Crypto was directly asked, under oath, whether Jump promised to bail out Do Kwon and restore the UST peg in exchange for a LUNA bribe.He pled the fifth.
— FatMan (@FatManTerra) November 8, 2023

The SEC counsel Devon Staren deposed Kariya by asking on a deal in which Jump was to help Terraform in restoring UST peg by purchasing tokens and in exchange Do Kwon would amend conditions for Jump’s LUNA vesting schedule. While avoiding to answer, Kariya invoked the right to plead Fifth.

Staren also shared two documents with a video and a screenshot regarding the lawsuit. After the video was played and Staren asked if he recognizes it, Kariya again repeated the same to exercise his right under the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer.

The questioning from the SEC also hinted at accusations on Jump in manipulating the price of UST and AnchorUST for alleged benefits in May 2021.

Kariya’s deposition occurred on August 18 while the court filing was shared days ago on October 28.