South Korean prosecutors are asking Interpol to issue a red notice for Kwon Do-Hyung, the Terraform Labs founder and CEO, labeling him a “fugitive.”
Do Kwon “Now a Fugitive” – South Korean Prosecutors
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office is requesting Interpol to issue a red alert saying that the Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon left the country for Singapore towards the end of May after the Terra Luna fiasco. The prosecutors allege that Kwon’s family left immediately after. In addition, most of the company’s former executives left South Korea and now reside in Singapore.
According to information on Interpol’s website, an Interpol red notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest an individual awaiting surrender, extradition, or similar legal action.
The prosecution said that it issued the arrest warrant due to fears that the suspect would fail to comply with the request for court appearances. According to the trial, the concerns were about Kwon “not cooperating with the investigation during the search and seizure process, and by telling his lawyer that he does not intend to appear immediately at the prosecution.”
Last week, South Korean authorities issued a warrant for Do-Kwon and five others on several claims, including violating the country’s capital market laws. According to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office’s Financial and Securities Crime Unit, the arrest warrants were requested and issued against the Terraform Labs officials, including CEO and co-founder Kwon Do-hyeong, a founding member of Nicholas Platias, and Han Mo, a Terraform Labs employee.
A couple of days later, on September 17, the Singapore Police announced to the AFP that it would support the Korean National Police Agency in compliance with Singaporean domestic laws and international obligations. The Police also confirmed that Kwon was not in Singapore.
“I Am Not On The Run” – Do Kwon
Do Kwon has denied being on the run, dismissing the allegations by the South Korean authorities. He took to Twitter, announcing that he was not running from South Korean Police and that he did not have anything to hide.
“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.”
The embattled CEO went on to say that he was “in the process of defending [himself] “in multiple jurisdictions” and that Terraform Labs has always maintained “an extremely high bar of integrity, and look[s] forward to clarifying the truth over the next few months.”
South Korean prosecutors claim that Kwon is “obviously on the run” and maintain that he was not cooperating with the investigations (Yonhap News Agency). Information from the Singapore police revealed that Kwon was not in the city-state, appearing to corroborate the claim.
South Korean authorities started investigating Terraform Labs, and its executives after what was referred to as a coordinated and focused attack on UST caused the Terraform ecosystem to collapse with the stablecoin de-pegging from the dollar. The fall of the stablecoin caused a plunge in LUNA prices, and all cryptocurrencies went downward.
Before its plunge, UST was the third largest dollar-pegged stablecoin. Its sister token, LUNA, was trading at all-time highs and was among the top ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The ensuing market crash sent shock waves throughout the crypto industry, and ripple effects caused several other projects exposed to UST/LUNA, such as Three Arrows Capital, to fall.
