In September, the South Korean government nullified the validity of Do Kwon’s passport.
A recent report from South Korea’s prosecutors’ office says Do Kwon, the former co-founder, and CEO of Terra, now lives as a crypto fugitive in Serbia. The one-time crypto billionaire has been on the run since the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office’s Financial and Securities Criminal Unit issued an arrest warrant against him. According to the unit, Kwon provided false information to TerraUSD and Luna token investors in September 2022. The aftermath of Kwon’s action resulted in the wipeout of over $60 billion from the crypto market.
In an interview with Chosun Media, a representative of the investigation team said:
“Recently, we obtained intelligence that CEO Kwon was in Serbia, and it was found to be true.”
Further reports indicated that the Terra crypto fugitive wants to cooperate with the authorities from Serbia. Before the crash of his crypto platform, Kwon moved his company’s base to Singapore. He was believed to have remained in Singapore until his departure in September. An official suggested he flew from Singapore to Dubai after his arrest warrant was issued.
Terra Boss Turns Wanted Crypto Fugitive
In September, the South Korean government nullified the validity of Do Kwon’s passport. A while after, Interpol issued a “Red Notice” declaring Kwon and his five accomplices wanted worldwide by law enforcement. In response to this, Do Kwon tweeted: “I am not “on the run” or anything similar – for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.” Kwon further denied that he and Terraform Labs had committed no offenses against the capital law market, saying such laws exclude cryptocurrencies. Since then, no representative of Terraform Labs has responded or given hints on the current developments.
There are elements of doubt that South Korea will be able to legally extradite Do Kwon from Serbia. Currently, the Asian government has only agreed on bilateral extradition treaties with 31 countries, excluding Serbia. However, South Korea and Serbia have a larger multilateral extradition treaty with the Council of Europe.
Terra stablecoin was formerly maintaining a constant value of $1 before the magnificent crash. The incident occurred in May after the Luna token plummeted, wiping out almost $2 trillion in the form of digital assets from the crypto market. The crypto fugitive has failed to explain the mystery behind the crash of Terra.
The Terra crash has been succeeded by the crash of FTX, one of the biggest crypto trading platforms. The United States federal prosecutors are currently investigating if Sam-Bankman Friedmann played a role in the Terra crash. They also suspected that SBF was involved in trade manipulations that bankrupted FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research.
Ibukun is a crypto/finance writer interested in passing relevant information, using non-complex words to reach all kinds of audience.
Apart from writing, she likes to see movies, cook, and explore restaurants in the city of Lagos, where she resides.
