Key Takeaways
- Korean courts have frozen $2 billion of Do Kwon’s belongings, seizing luxurious vehicles and residences.
- Awaiting Kwon is a passport fraud trial in Montenegro and eight prison fraud prices in the USA.
Share this text
South Korean authorities have frozen round $2 billion value of belongings tied to Do Kwon, the CEO of blockchain agency Terraform Labs, as they proceed their investigation into the catastrophic crash of cryptocurrencies Terra Basic (USTC) and Luna Basic (LUNC).
Native authorized insiders disclosed that Seoul’s Southern District Courtroom accepted a pre-indictment asset seizure request by prosecutors focusing on Kwon’s wealth on Could 10, according to native information outlet Hankyung. The request sought to freeze round 2.33 trillion Korean received (roughly $2 billion) in belongings that Kwon allegedly accrued by way of prison actions. This pre-indictment seizure prevents the disposal of belongings or earnings obtained by a defendant earlier than a conviction is finalized.
The courtroom’s choice places a halt on Kwon’s potential choice to eliminate varied high-value belongings together with the luxurious “Galleria Foret” house advanced in Seoul’s Seongdong-gu district, the rights to newly constructed office-tels in Nonhyeon-dong and a number of other imported luxurious automobiles. Along with these bodily belongings, monetary holdings akin to securities held with Mirae Asset Daewoo, deposits in Woori Financial institution, and cryptocurrencies in varied exchanges are additionally now frozen. The courtroom rejected requests to freeze a few of Kwon’s different unspecified monetary belongings.
Kwon, at the moment indicted with out detention, and Hyun Sung Shin, former CEO of Chai Company, co-founded Terraform Labs in 2018 and launched the USTC stablecoin and LUNC cryptocurrencies. Following the challenge’s collapse, Terraform Labs rebranded its cryptocurrencies: dollar-pegged TerraUSD (UST), which is now defunct, was Terra Basic; and the extra speculative Terra (LUNA) rebranded to LUNA2 whereas the unique LUNA blockchain was renamed Luna Basic (LUNC).
In Could 2022, a drastic plunge in the value of those cash inflicted world traders with losses approximated at a staggering 50 trillion received, or round $44 billion.
Following the Terra crash, Kwon left South Korea and had been tough to trace till he was arrested in Montenegro on March 23, 2023, going through prices of utilizing a counterfeit Costa Rican passport on his strategy to Dubai. Kwon is now awaiting trial in Montenegro for passport fraud prices, whereas the USA charged Kwon with eight criminal charges of fraud. Korean and United States prosecutors are unsure when they’ll have the ability to safe his extradition.
