Key Takeaways
South Korea’s Ministry of Finance “is in the process of requesting cooperation from the Serbian government”
Kwon currently faces various charges of violating capital markets after US$60 billion of tokens were wiped out.
South Korean authorities believe Terraform Labs founder and CEO Do Kwon is hiding in Serbia after leaving Singapore in September. Terraform Labs is the company behind the algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD or UST and its sister token luna, which collapsed earlier this year.
As per recent media reports, South Korea’s Ministry of Finance “is in the process of requesting cooperation from the Serbian government” as part of the ongoing probe. “Recently, we obtained intelligence that CEO Kwon was in Serbia, and it was found to be true,” said an official to local media.
South Korea has been on the lookout for Kwon ever since TerraUSD imploded in May. In September, Kwon and 5 other people involved in the collapse of Terra were slapped with an arrest warrant. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office’s Financial and Securities then issued an international arrest warrant for Kwon because there existed “circumstantial evidence of escape” ever since he left for Singapore.
In October, the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry ordered Kwon to surrender his passport while dismissing rumors that Kwon’s passport was invalid. The ministry also added that failure to surrender his passport would result in the cancellation of his passport altogether. In the very same month, Kwon had flown to Dubai, likely as a stopover to a destination unknown after exiting Singapore.
To catch the fugitive, Interpol even issued a red notice for Kwon, who currently faces various charges of violating capital markets after US$60 billion of tokens were wiped out. Kwon, active on social media, has stated that he is not “on the run” while adding that he has been “making zero effort to hide.”
Do Kwon co-founded Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. in January 2018 with entrepreneur Daniel Shin. The 31-year-old has also worked on various blockchain projects, including Mirror, Prism, Astroport, and Anchor. The Terra blockchain began its collapse on 7 May 2022 when several prominent investors sold over $285 million worth of UST. The Terra implosion has affected big names in the industry and forced some firms to file for bankruptcy.
