Zhu Juntao, ex-CEO of Hodlnaut, faces fraud charges in Singapore for misleading clients about losses from the TerraUSD collapse.
Zhu Juntao, the ex-CEO of the now-defunct crypto lender Hodlnaut, faces six fraud charges in Singapore for allegedly misleading clients regarding the company's losses connected to the TerraUSD collapse in 2022.
Fraud Allegations Detailed
The Singapore Police Force claims that Zhu directed his team to spread false information through Hodlnaut's communication channels, asserting that the firm had no direct losses from TerraUSD’s failure. Furthermore, he allegedly repeated these misleading statements on his personal X account in June 2022.
If convicted, Zhu could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for each count, alongside potential financial penalties. He has denied all charges, with a pre-trial conference set for June 2026, according to local reports.
Hodlnaut's Financial Collapse
- Following the TerraUSD incident, Hodlnaut reported losses of around $189.7 million after investing $317 million of client funds into Terra’s Anchor Protocol, which had promised high yields.
- The firm suspended withdrawals in August 2022 and eventually entered judicial management, leading to a liquidation order from the Singapore High Court.
- Founded in 2019, Hodlnaut had over 30,000 users before its downfall.
The collapse of Hodlnaut is part of a broader wave of failures among crypto lenders triggered by the collapse of Terraform Labs’ stablecoin ecosystem, which resulted in the loss of about $40 billion from the crypto market and affected other companies such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius.
During the restructuring, it became apparent that Hodlnaut lacked proper internal recordkeeping and that some executives were uncooperative with investigators.
