Do Kwon, the Co-Founder of the
collapsed stablecoin issuer, Terraform Labs, has been arrested by police
authorities in Montenegro, Filip Adzic, the country’s Interior Minister
disclosed on Thursday. According to Adzic, Kwon was arrested at the Podgorica
Airport and was found with falsified documents.
“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,”
Adzic tweeted on Thursday in a Croatian language (translated by Google).
U PODGORICI UHAPŠEN JEDAN OD NAJTRAŽENIJIH SVJETSKIH BJEGUNACA
Crnogrska policija lišila je slobode lice za koje se sumnja da je jedan od najtraženijih bjegunaca, južnokorejski državljanin Do Kwon, suosnivač i izvršni direktor Terraform Labs sa sjedištem u Singapuru.
1/2— Filip Adzic (@filip_adzic) March 23, 2023
Yonhap News Agency, a local
Korean news wire, reported that an official from the national police agency
“confirmed that he was the same person as CEO Kwon” by using photo data. Local
police also checked for the age, nationality and name of the arrested person using the
identification card in his possession, the outlet said.
“We are waiting for official
confirmation of identity,” Adzic, on his part, wrote in the tweet.
Kwon ran algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD
(UST) and associated token LUNA starting April 2018. He marketed UST as a yield -bearing
stablecoin providing returns of up to 20%. However, UST, which was
pegged 1-to-1 with the US dollar, lost its balance in May 2022, touching down near zero.
The failure of the project sent
panic across the global cryptocurrency world, ultimately resulting in a wave of
bankruptcies among digital asset firms exposed to the project. Experts
estimate that losses from the failure topped $40 billion.
Following the collapse, a South
Korean court issued an arrest warrant against Kwon for allegedly violating the South
Korean capital markets laws. Two months earlier, authorities in the country
also raided Kwon’s house in an attempt to establish the criminal activities behind the Terra-LUNA collapse.
During the early days following
the collapse, Kwon said he was cooperating with authorities on their
investigation. However, his whereabouts remained unknown for many
months.
Last month, the US federal
securities regulator charged the Terra Co-Founder for running a “multi-billion-dollar crypto
asset securities fraud.” The watchdog also alleged that crypto assets
offered by Kwon’s company were unregistered securities.
Do Kwon, the Co-Founder of the
collapsed stablecoin issuer, Terraform Labs, has been arrested by police
authorities in Montenegro, Filip Adzic, the country’s Interior Minister
disclosed on Thursday. According to Adzic, Kwon was arrested at the Podgorica
Airport and was found with falsified documents.
“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,”
Adzic tweeted on Thursday in a Croatian language (translated by Google).
U PODGORICI UHAPŠEN JEDAN OD NAJTRAŽENIJIH SVJETSKIH BJEGUNACA
Crnogrska policija lišila je slobode lice za koje se sumnja da je jedan od najtraženijih bjegunaca, južnokorejski državljanin Do Kwon, suosnivač i izvršni direktor Terraform Labs sa sjedištem u Singapuru.
1/2— Filip Adzic (@filip_adzic) March 23, 2023
Yonhap News Agency, a local
Korean news wire, reported that an official from the national police agency
“confirmed that he was the same person as CEO Kwon” by using photo data. Local
police also checked for the age, nationality and name of the arrested person using the
identification card in his possession, the outlet said.
“We are waiting for official
confirmation of identity,” Adzic, on his part, wrote in the tweet.
Kwon ran algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD
(UST) and associated token LUNA starting April 2018. He marketed UST as a yield -bearing
stablecoin providing returns of up to 20%. However, UST, which was
pegged 1-to-1 with the US dollar, lost its balance in May 2022, touching down near zero.
The failure of the project sent
panic across the global cryptocurrency world, ultimately resulting in a wave of
bankruptcies among digital asset firms exposed to the project. Experts
estimate that losses from the failure topped $40 billion.
Following the collapse, a South
Korean court issued an arrest warrant against Kwon for allegedly violating the South
Korean capital markets laws. Two months earlier, authorities in the country
also raided Kwon’s house in an attempt to establish the criminal activities behind the Terra-LUNA collapse.
During the early days following
the collapse, Kwon said he was cooperating with authorities on their
investigation. However, his whereabouts remained unknown for many
months.
Last month, the US federal
securities regulator charged the Terra Co-Founder for running a “multi-billion-dollar crypto
asset securities fraud.” The watchdog also alleged that crypto assets
offered by Kwon’s company were unregistered securities.
