Zhu Juntao, the co-founder and former CEO of Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut, was charged in a Singapore court on May 26, 2026 with six counts of fraud by false representation. The charges come nearly four years after the Terra/LUNA ecosystem collapse triggered a $193 million financial shortfall that forced Hodlnaut into liquidation and stranded over 30,000 users worldwide.
According to the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force, Zhu allegedly directed employees to make misleading statements between May and July 2022 — immediately after TerraUSD’s catastrophic de-pegging — claiming that Hodlnaut had no direct exposure to UST and had not suffered any losses. These statements were posted on the company’s official Telegram channel and emailed directly to users. Internal records later showed the platform held significant UST positions and lost nearly $190 million from the Terra collapse. Court-appointed managers also discovered an additional $13.1 million in user assets stranded on the failed FTX exchange.
Each of the six charges — including violations under Singapore’s Penal Code and the Securities and Futures Act — carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine, or both. Zhu indicated he was not guilty; a pre-trial conference is scheduled for June 2026. Legal observers see the prosecution as part of Singapore’s wider crackdown on crypto executives, and the case could influence how other jurisdictions handle platform failures. The ongoing liquidation is expected to last years, with creditors likely recovering only a fraction of their deposits.
