South Korea and the US are seeking extradition of a former encryption king

Jaleel加六

2023-03-24 15:02

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Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has been arrested in Montenegro, Interior Minister Filip Adzic announced on his social media platform on March 23. The Montenegrin authorities say Do Kwon was trying to fly to Dubai using a forged Costa Rican travel document. In the nearly six months since the South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon in September last year, his whereabouts have been in and out of sight, appearing only sporadically through various interviews. BlockBeats, which has combed through Do Kwon's journey from wanted to arrest, looks back at the former crypto star's "capture".

On March 29, 2022, LUNA in its heyday, former Forbes senior editor and Unchained co-director Laura Shin interviewed Do Kwon about Luna Ecology. In the podcast, Do Kwon acknowledges that LUNA is at risk of a death spiral in the event of an extreme shift in market demand. (BlockBeats note, for more on Laura Shin's interview with Do Kwon, readTalk to Luna founder Do Kwon: UST's Bitcoin bet")

One month after the episode's podcast aired, TVL's nearly $20 billion Luna eco-crash. When Luna went to Do Kwon's house and found no one there, Kwon's whereabouts became a mystery.

On August 16, 2022, Do Kwon sat down with Coinage managing director Zack in Singapore for an interview. This is the first time Do Kwon has faced the cameras since the Luna incident. In the interview, Do Kwon said he did not believe the Luna and UST cases were ethical. (BlockBeats note, read more about Zack's interview with Do Kwon atLUNA Founder: I bet it all, and I lost this time")

On September 14, 2022, the South Korean police officially issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, and Interpol issued a red notice for him, but he was probably no longer in Singapore at that time. This is when Do Kwon's journey began in earnest, as police began searching for him in various countries.

On October 18, 2022, Do Kwon again participated in Laura Shin's podcast recording, which was also Do Kwon's last public appearance. In the interview, Laura Shin asked Do Kwon directly where he was, but Do Kwon declined to say, saying he left Singapore not because of the May crash but because he felt his personal safety was threatened, even by reporters and people breaking into his apartment building. (BlockBeats note, for more on Laura Shin's interview with Do Kwon, read theDialogue Do Kwon: Accusations, Manhunt and the Faith and Confession of Terra's founder")

In December 2022, sources reported that Do Kwon, the founder of Terra, was hiding in Serbia, and the Korean Justice Ministry contacted the Serbian government to investigate whether Do Kwon had special assistance in Serbia. After entering Serbia, Do Kwon's on-chain wallet data was captured for the first time while he was on the run. On November 8, he transferred 9.64 BTCS, then worth nearly 190,000 dollars, from the LFG wallet to the Binance wallet, and exchanged bitcoins into dollars and other cash.

February 7, 2023. South Korean prosecutors and justice Ministry officials traveled to Serbia last week to seek help in tracking down Terra founder Do Kwon. The news was confirmed by the Seoul prosecutor's office, which and the Justice Ministry declined to comment on Do Kwon's exact location.

On February 17, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an announcement that it had filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York accusing Singapore-based Terraform Labs PTE Ltd and Do Hyeong Kwon of orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud, Involving algorithmicstablecoin and other crypto asset securities, in violation of the registration and anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act.

Between April 2018 and May 2022, when the scheme finally collapsed, Terraform and Do Kwon raised billions of dollars from investors by issuing and selling a set of interconnected crypto asset securities, many of them in unregistered transactions, according to the SEC's charges, These include mAssets, a security-based swap trade, and Terra USD (UST), a crypto security known as algorithmic Stablecoin.

In addition, the SEC alleges that Terraform and Kwon offered and sold investors other ways to invest in their "cryptocurrency empire," including the crypto asset security Token MIR (or Mirror Token) and LUNA itself. Terraform and Kwon market crypto asset securities to investors, repeatedly claiming that the tokens will increase in value.

On March 16, South Korean prosecutors expanded cooperation with overseas legal institutions and counterparts to assist in the arrest and extradition of South Korean national Do Kwon.

On March 23, Montenegro's Interior Minister Filip Adzic announced on his social media platform that Terraform Labs affiliate Do Kwon was detained by police at Podgorica Airport in Montenegro for forging documents. South Korean officials later confirmed that Do Kwon was indeed arrested in Montenegro. According to a person familiar with the matter, Do Kwon's personal passport had been detained in Serbia.

3 月 24 日，塞尔维亚科技刑事检察官办公室和美国联邦检察官办公室透露，Terraform Labs 首席执行官 Do Kwon 与其一起逃跑的 Chai Corporation 前首席执行官 Shin Hyun-seung（又名 Daniel Shin）在塞尔维亚成立了一家与加密资产业务相关的公司。据悉，检察机关正在确认 Do Kwon 是为了在塞尔维亚正式开展虚拟资产业务而设立法人，还是为了洗钱等而设立皮包公司。

Federal prosecutors in New York filed criminal fraud charges against Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon hours after police in Montenegro arrested him. According to the complaint, Do Kwon is charged with conspiracy to defraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to manipulate markets, and US prosecutors are seeking his extradition to the US, while South Korean prosecutors are also seeking his extradition to South Korea.