The Jump Crypto president pleaded the fifth in a court hearing when an SEC lawyer asked about the firm’s agreement to restore UST to its peg.

Jump Crypto, a division of the Jump Trading group, finds itself caught in the crossfire as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probes an alleged arrangement with former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon. 

The SEC’s lawyers deposed Jump Crypto president Kanav Kariya last month, and specifically asked him whether the firm had agreed to restore Terra USD’s (UST) peg to the U.S. dollar by buying up large amounts of the algorithmic stablecoin in May 2021.

Snippets of the deposition, shared online by Terra researcher FatMan, show that Kariya declined to answer by invoking the fifth amendment.

The Jump bailout and subsequent coverup cost retail investors hundreds of millions of dollars. This went into the pockets of Do Kwon, TFL, and Jump. Until this day, there has been no justice for UST victims. https://t.co/1VNqUxqMAp

— FatMan (@FatManTerra) November 8, 2023

In February, sources told The Block that Jump was the unidentified trading firm that the SEC refers to in its indictment against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon. Jump allegedly made more than $1 billion worth of profit in the under the table deal before Terra’s $40 billion ecosystem eventually collapsed. 

The so-called “market making” arrangement allowed Jump to buy large quantities of heavily discounted LUNA tokens in order to prop up UST’s price. In some instances, Jump was reportedly able to buy LUNA for $0.40 at a time when it was trading at over $90 per token. 

Jump Crypto was an active participant in the Terra ecosystem, contributing to governance proposals and investing in its cross-chain bridge. Kariya was also a member of the board of Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), the entity in charge of Terra’s reserves.