Investigators say that the founder of Terra Luna, Do Kwon, withdrew $29 million in crypto from an entity linked to his failed blockchain company.
South Korean authorities are currently engaged in a search for the digital assets allegedly transferred after his arrest in Montenegro in March.
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Do Kwon withdraws millions of dollars in crypto linked to Terra Luna
According to a South Korean prosecutor involved in the case, crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon allegedly transferred tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from an entity linked to his blockchain project before its collapse last year.
Dan Sunghan, director of the Financial Crimes Investigation Bureau at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office, revealed to Bloomberg that about $ 29 miliona in digital coins were likely moved by Kwon personally or at his request after his arrest this spring.
As we know, Kwon, who had disappeared after the failure of the Terra/Luna ecosystem in May 2022, was arrested on 23 March this year while trying to leave Montenegro with a fake passport.
He is currently on trial in the small Balkan state. Dan said South Korean authorities are currently trying to locate the tokens, which were taken from a cryptographic wallet belonging to Kwon’s Čuvar fondacije Luna (LFG), an entity he created to maintain the TerraUSD’s peg to the US dollar.
Since the Terraform ecosystem collapsed and Kwon disappeared, the fate of cryptocurrencies has remained the subject of speculation. In addition to the funds mentioned above, Kwon was alleged to have siphoned off another 10,000 BTC or possibly more, according to a statement by the US securities regulator in February.
In addition, Dan Sunghan added that he believes Kwon and his associates have at least $13 million with Sygnum Bank, a Swiss bank specializing in crypto.
The charges brought against Do Kwon
After Kwon’s arrest, the Korean prosecutor, noting that investigators are still having difficulty locating the funds, stated the following:
“We’re assuming that Do Kwon, or someone under his direction, withdrew the money and moved it to another wallet, not Sygnum, and cashed it out somewhere else.”
Specifically, the founder of Terraform Labs is at the center of allegations of crypto fraud in both the Sjedinjene Države a Republika Koreja.
In fact, both countries have requested his extradition from Montenegro, where he has currently pleaded da nije kriv to the charge of using false travel documents and has entered a request for release on bail.
According to Dan, the Korean investigator leading the case, Kwon could face trial in both South Korea and the United States for the incident involving as much as 40 milijardi $.
In addition, he could be sentenced to spend most of his life in prison. Dan explained that the 31-year-old could be extradited to the United States to face trial there and then carry out the sentence in both South Korea and the United States.
High court in Montenegro rejects Do Kwon’s bail application
For the past several months, Do Kwon has been detained in Montenegro’s capital after being arrested at the airport in Podgorica. Kwon, along with his accomplice Han Chong-joon, allegedly attempted to flee Montenegro to Dubai.
However, their plans were disrupted when Kwon was discovered with false identity documents. Montenegro’s interior minister, Filip Adžić, confirmed Kwon’s arrest and subsequent detention in Podgorica.
Since then, Kwon has been trapped inside Montenegro’s prisons, with distressing reports about the treatment of inmates and the poor state of prison infrastructure in the country.
In early May, there seemed to be hope when Kwon and Chong-joon were granted permission by Montenegro’s lower court to be released on bail upon payment of a sum of $430,500.
However, the optimism was short-lived as news emerged on 24 May that a higher court permanently preinačio odluku to grant bail set by the lower court.
In addition, as anticipated, there are suspicions that the co-founder of Terraform Labs may have hidden $100 million in a Swiss bank account.
Dakle, kao Sam Bankman Fried, the disgraced FTX co-founder, Kwon appears to have had substantial financial resources to support his expensive legal defenses thus far.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/06/09/crypto-do-kwon-other-secrets-terra-luna/