Singapore Court Validates Do Kwon, Terraform Labs Lawsuit

• Singapore High Court has validated the lawsuit against Do Kwon and his company.
• The court denied an appeal to shift the proceedings to arbitration.
• The case has been ongoing since September 2022.

The High Court of Singapore decided to proceed with a class-action lawsuit against Terraform Labs and the company’s founder, Kwon Do-hyung, popularly known as Do Kown.

In September 2022, Julian Moreno Beltran, a Spanish citizen, and Douglas Gan, a Singaporean, on behalf of 375 others, filed a lawsuit against Do Kwon and Terraform, claiming misrepresentations by the defendants caused them to lose around $57 million.

To toss the lawsuit, the defendants proposed an arbitration process, arguing that the terms of use on the company’s website prevented the claimants from seeking a legal remedy. The Assistant Registrar of the High Court denied this application, but the defendants appealed the decision on September 25.

Court Issues Grounds for Appeal Denial

On November 30, Judge Hri Kumar Nair ruled that despite the defendants establishing a prima facie case of an arbitration agreement, their conduct of the matter up to that point demonstrated that the defendants had accepted the court’s jurisdiction over the lawsuit.

Per the ruling, the judge established that Terraform took a “step in the proceedings” under s 6(1) of the IAA. This act contradicted an earlier argument that sought to challenge the court’s jurisdiction.

“Terraform’s act of requesting for particulars relating to the quantum of damages was inconsistent with its jurisdictional challenge. There was no reason why such information was needed unless Terraform intended to engage the court’s jurisdiction to assess the quantum of damages. Thus, such act constituted a “step in the proceedings,” the Judge ruled.

Further, the judge noted that while the lawsuit was filed in 2022, the defendants only raised the jurisdictional challenge argument in June this year, a nine-month delay the court finds to be “regrettable.”

Based on these and other grounds, the court ruled that the defendants should no longer be granted a stay in favor of arbitration.

Read how Montenegro recently approved Do Kwon’s extradition:
Do Kwon Extradition Signed By Montenegro, Here’s What’s Next

Stay updated on how Do Kwon’s extradition to the U.S. got complicated:
Do Kwon’s US Extradition Complicated by Forgery Charges