Seoul Prosecutors Believe Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon Still in Possession of $100 Million Held in Swiss Bank Account

April 27, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Do Kwon seeks SEC charges dismissal as S.Korea rules LUNA as non-security

April 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The South Korean district court recently dismissed security violation charges against Terra co-founder Hyun-seong Shin, deeming LUNA as non-security under Korea’s Capital Markets Act.

Court documents were filed indicating that Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, has asked for the dismissal of charges leveled against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In the motion filed on Friday, April 21 to have the SEC charges dismissed, Kwon argued the SEC’s claims are invalid, pushing back against the agency’s position that tokens including MIR, LUNA (LUNA) and UST are securities.

Additionally, Kwon’s counsel said the agency lacked the proper jurisdiction to bring charges against Kwon and Terraform Labs because Terra's tokens and projects were “aimed at the world” and did not specifically target U.S. investors.

The South Korean district court recently dismissed s ecurity violation charges against the co-founder of Terraform Labs, Hyun-seong Shin, deeming LUNA as non-security under Korea’s Capital Markets Act. This ruling makes Kwon's motion right only in connection to LUNA.

However, in a press conference after the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s office indicted 10 people involved in the collapse of the Terra stablecoin ecosystem, the prosecutor reportedly identified Signum as the Swiss bank account where Kwon transferred more than 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from the Terra platform and the Luna Foundation Guard to a cold wallet, then converted to fiat.

The Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s office, headed by Dan Seong-han, stated that they are monitoring Bitcoin owned by Luna Foundation Guard and that the transferred amount, which aligns with the SEC complaint, is approximately $100 million (equivalent to 130 billion won).

The prosecutors clarified that the $100 million was not kept solely in the Signum account and was dispersed in various locations. It was verified that a portion of the funds was transferred to the Kim & Chang law firm account to cover legal fees, while the rest amounted to billions of won.

The SEC’s actions against Kwon and the company he co-founded preempted his arrest in Montenegro, where he currently faces extradition. South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kwon in September and U.S. federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against him shortly after he was arrested a month ago.

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Terraform Labs co-founder and nine others indicted in South Korea

April 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The indictment of 10 individuals associated with Terraform Labs, including co-founder Hyun-seong Shin, comes after 11 months of investigation into the collapse of Terra.

The financial crimes unit at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office reportedly indicted Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-seong and nine other individuals for the collapse of the Terra stablecoin ecosystem.

The 10 individuals were reportedly indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust and embezzlement and referred to trial after 11 months of investigation. The prosecutor’s office suspected that the individuals involved in the collapse amassed illicit profits of nearly $350 million (460 billion won), reported KBS World, a Korean daily.

Shin is accused of misleading investors and falsely advertising the product to cause significant losses despite knowing that the project was unfeasible. Prosecutors have also seized the assets of the indicted individuals and estimated them to be worth a total of $180 million (246.8 billion won).

The prosecutor’s indictment comes just days after a district court in Seoul declared that the Luna (LUNA) token was not a security and doesn’t fall under the purview of the Capital Markets Act. The court had earlier refused the prosecution's ten demands of charging Shin for the violation of security law.

The latest indictment of Shin and nine other executives comes just a month after former CEO Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro. Prosecutors in Montenegro indicted Kwon on charges of document forgery. Kwon is also facing multiple charges of security fraud from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Terra was one of the budding crypto ecosystems that popularized the concept of algorithmic stablecoins. However, in May 2022 the native stablecoin, TerraClassicUSD (USTC), de-pegged from its dollar value and the $40 billion ecosystem came crashing down.

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4,400 disgruntled investors are hunting for Terra’s Do Kwon

October 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A retail investor group is trying to track down Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon following the crash of the Terra ecosystems’ cryptocurrencies.

Members of a 4,400-strong Discord group called the “UST Restitution Group” (URG) have been attempting to track down the whereabouts of Terra co-founder Do Kwon.

Members of the group, seemingly out of frustration at the lack of results from law enforcement agencies, are scouring the internet for clues and sharing them with the group in an attempt to track down Kwon.

Members have suggested that he could be residing in places such as Russia, Dubai, Azerbaijan, or even on a yacht.

Their continuing efforts come despite authorities in South Korea taking significant steps to bring Kwon to justice, with a Seoul court issuing a warrant for his arrest on Sep. 14 and Interpol having reportedly issued a “Red Notice” to law enforcement worldwide on Sept. 26 in response to the warrant.

URG was originally formed on May. 16 as a chatroom for Terra ecosystem investors and to help launch lawsuits on behalf of its members to recover funds lost from TerraClassicUSD (USTC), the so-called stablecoin that depegged from the U.S. dollar.

One member of URG, Kan Hyung-suk, will soon be traveling to Dubai according to an Oct. 19 report from the Financial Times, a city where many from the group believe Kwon is hiding. Another member from the URG was reported as saying:

“Dubai is friendly to crypto, very international (he would not stand out), and has limited extradition treaties in place. It would seem like the best fit for the 3-5 hour timezone shift apparent in the data.”

Hyung-suk is a 26-year-old software engineer and a former employee of Terraform Labs, the company behind the development of the Terra blockchain, and has been a member of the URG since May 26.

Kwon, who became a controversial figure in the wake of the Terra ecosystem implosion, has maintained claims he is not “on the run” and is fully cooperating with all government agencies in communication with him.

Kwon was interviewed on Oct. 19 by Laura Shin, a crypto-journalist and host of the Unchained podcast, who asked him a range of questions relating to current news stories.

Speaking on his current whereabouts, Kwon suggested that he moved from Singapore following the Terra crash due to privacy and personal security concerns, saying as an example that his apartment was broken into, and stated:

“It’s not in the interest of being on the run or something like that, that I don’t want to disclose where I live. It’s just that every time the location where I live becomes known, it becomes almost impossible for me to live there.”

A spokesperson from Terraform Labs maintains the charges against Kwon are “highly politicized”, and that South Korean prosecutors have expanded the definition of financial securities in response to public pressure. Kwon echoed this sentiment during his interview with Shin.

Do Kwon reportedly hires lawyers in S.Korea to prepare for Terra investigation

August 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has claimed that Korean authorities haven’t contacted or filed any charges against him in the Terra investigation.

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has reportedly hired a lawyer from a domestic law firm in South Korea just days after claiming the South Korean authorities are yet to reach out to him or file any charges against him.

According to a local media report, Kwon recently submitted a letter of appointment to an attorney at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, the department that is currently investigating the Terra-LUNA collapse.

While Kwon claims no charges were filed against him, prosecutors in South Korea behind the investigation of Terraform Labs reportedly executed a search and seizure in 15 firms in the third week of July. It includes seven crypto exchanges linked to now-defunct Terra's collapse.

Prosecutors reportedly notified Kwon, who was staying in Singapore and banned the departure of key people.

South Korean authorities began an investigation into the $40 billion Terra ecosystem collapse soon after the ecosystem’s implosion in May. The first action came towards the end of May when the authorities decided to form a new crypto oversight committee to avoid Terra-like incidents in the future. Later, CEO Kwon was sued and accused of fraud and violation of several financial acts.

Later, in June, the authorities began a formal investigation into the incident and found Terraform Labs guilty of tax evasion and market manipulation. Prosecutors in the country banned Terraform Lab employees from leaving the country.

The Terra-USD collapse and implosion of a $40 billion ecosystem had a catastrophic impact on the larger ecosystem. The incident later led to a crypto contagion that claimed several crypto lenders and hedge funds.

Legal troubles mount for Terraform Labs as Seoul police investigative

June 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

South Korean authorities are currently investigating Terraform Labs and its employees on several charges including tax evasion and market manipulation.

Terraform Labs, the parent company behind the collapsed Terra ecosystem, is currently under multiple investigations from the South Korean authorities.

The latest investigation revolves around the alleged embezzlement of Bitcoin (BTC) from the company’s treasury. According to a report published in a local daily, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency received an intelligence tip last month informing them of possible embezzlement of BTC by one of the employees of the firm.

The police stated that the investigation into the alleged embezzlement of BTC from the company’s treasury had no direct connection with tainted co-founder Do Kwon and they are investigating individual embezzlement charges at this point.

Authorities managed to freeze the stolen funds with the help of a crypto exchange until the investigation is complete. However, the amount of the stolen funds wasn’t disclosed.

Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a fund set up by the company that held over $3 billion in Bitcoin reserves, became the focus of interest in the aftermath of the collapse. The BTC fund was used to help balance the algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD (UST). The firm claimed all its BTC reserves were used in a futile attempt to stabilize UST.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin denied any allegations of malpractice or fraud. He said:

“There was no intention of deception as we just wanted to innovate the payment settlement system with blockchain technology,”

South Korean authorities have launched a full-scale investigation into the recent collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the role of Terraforms Labs employees and co-founder Do Kwon.

The first investigation began in the second week of May after 81 investors collectively filed two complaints against the firm for deceiving investors with a flawed token.

As Cointelegraph reported earlier, South Korea’s feared investigative and prosecutorial team called “Grim Reapers of Yeouido” was reformed by the new president to look into Terraform Labs. Later, the South Korean Conservative Party requested a parliamentary hearing on the matter.

In the last week of May, Korean authorities subpoenaed all Terraform Labs employees to investigate any internal role in market manipulation. Authorities also requested crypto exchanges to freeze funds associated with LFG.

The national tax agency of South Korea fined Terraform Labs $78 million on tax evasion charges, which came to light in the aftermath of several investigations into the firm post-collapse.

The collapse of the $40 billion Terra ecosystem didn’t just invite legal troubles for the creators of the project, it has also forced regulators around the globe to rethink their crypto regulatory strategy. Korea formed a new crypto oversight committee, while Japan passed new regulations permitting only trust companies and banks to issue stablecoin.

South Korean government becomes an early investor in metaverse

June 2, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain Game

South Korea’s rising interest in nascent tech could prompt other nations to take up the idea of metaverse more seriously.

South Korea, a nation known for its strict crypto regulatory stance, is betting big on the metaverse. The government will invest over 223.7 billion won ($177.1 million) directly in various metaverse projects.

The decision to invest in the nascent metaverse tech makes South Korea one of the first national governments to do so. The investment came under the ‘Digital New Deal’ program set up to invest in emerging technologies.

The program is headed by the country’s science and information and communication technologies ministry led by Lim Hyesook. Hyesook called the metaverse “an uncharted digital continent with indefinite potential,” indicating the government’s interest in taking lead in the metaverse tech.

The national fund would be first utilized to build a metropolitan level metaverse platform that would allow citizens to access various government schemes and services virtually, reported CNBC.

The South Korean government’s investment in metaverse projects could prompt other nations to follow the suit.

The reports about the South Korean government’s rising interest in the metaverse first came in February when two major retailers launched metaverse and artificial intelligence integration for their platforms to enhance customer experience.

South Korea has been known to be a technologically progressive nation and it has taken proactive steps to promote the nascent technology of blockchain. It was among the first governments to introduce blockchain use cases for government offices, which set the precedent for other countries to follow.

Metaverse is a virtual reality setup with a nonfungible token acting as a commodity ( a piece of land, cloth, avatar, etc.). Although the concept is quite new, it has generated the biggest hype in the crypto world after NFTs. All major mainstream tech firms, be it Facebook, Google or even Apple have shown great interest in the concept. Facebook went as far as changing its whole brand to Meta.

Metaverse was one of the key topics of discussion during the recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022, where experts predicted that metaverse would help in various fields especially medical and rescue operations where at times it becomes impossible for humans to carry out tasks in person, and a virtual reality set-up can help immensely.

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