Terra Founder Do Kwon Reportedly Arrested in Montenegro
- A person suspected to be Terra founder Do Kwon was arrested at the airport in Montenegro’s capital city of Podgorica with “falsified documents”.
- South Korean authorities have confirmed the individual was Do Kwon based on “photo data”, name, age, and nationality, but are still waiting for fingerprint information.
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An individual suspected to be Do Kwon, the founder of the Terra blockchain, has been arrested within the territory of the Balkan nation of Montenegro, the country’s Minister of the Interior Filip Adzic said via Twitter on 23 March.
According to the announcement, a South Korean national suspected to be Do Kwon based on “photo data” was detained at the airport in Montenegro’s capital city Podgorica. Adzic — who was confirmed by local media to own the Twitter account that made the claim — noted that the person under arrest was caught using “falsified documents”, and that authorities were for an official confirmation of his identity. Adzi tweeted:
“Montenegrin police have detained a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean citizen Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs. The former “cryptocurrency king”, who is behind losses of more than $40 billion dollars, was detained at the Podgorica airport with falsified documents.”
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the Korean National Police had confirmed the suspect appeared to be Do Kwon based on his age, name, and the nationality of his ID card. Former Terra executive Han Mo was also reportedly arrested at the Podgorica airport, though the National Police Agency was still waiting for “fingerpring information” from Montenegro to fully verify the two individuals.
South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon — the founder of the Terra blockchain, which collapsed in a spectacular fashion last year — last September, alleging that he had violated the country’s Capital Markets Act. Do Kwon continued to claim on Twitter that he was “not on the run”, but reports indicated that he had escaped to Serbia — which shares a border with Montenegro — after a short visit to Dubai in October.
Although South Korea does not have an extradition agreement with South Korea, it does have one with the United States, and is known to have complied with such requests in the past. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Do Kwon back in February, alleging that he had orchestrated a “multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin.
- A district court in South Korea ruled that the token was not a security, noting that it was “difficult to see LUNA as financial investment product regulated by the Capital Markets Act”.
- Using this decision, the court dismissed the prosecution’s request to confiscate properties owned by Terraform Labs’ co-founder Hyun-seung Shin.
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- The now arrested Terraform Labs CEO had reportedly converted the majority of his illicit funds into BTC using foreign exchanged not under the jurisdiction of South Korea.
- While none of the assets tied to Do Kwon were recoverable, South Korean authorities continue to seize assets and properties tied to other executives of Terra.
- Do Kwon was charged with conspiracy to defraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to engage in market manipulation.
- A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which brought the charges against Do Kwon, said the Department of Justice (DoJ) will seek his extradition.