Terra's Do Kwon Is in Serbia, CoinDesk Korea Reports

The Terraform Labs co-founder is wanted in South Korea, backed by Interpol.

AccessTimeIconDec 12, 2022 at 9:05 a.m. UTC
Updated Dec 12, 2022 at 3:44 p.m. UTC

Do Kwon, who is wanted internationally in connection with the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, has moved to Serbia through Dubai, CoinDesk Korea reported on Monday.

Kwon was the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, which was behind the stablecoin terraUSD (UST) that was deppeged from the U.S. dollar in May. The depegging quickly sent luna (LUNA), the token that was used to stabilize UST, on a downward spiral. The Terra domino was the first to fall in a crypto winter that most recently saw the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

South Korea, where Kwon is from, had issued an arrest warrant for the founder. Interpol had also reportedly issued a red notice for the co-founder, which is a request to law enforcement around the world to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's office said Monday that Kwon was in Serbia, and the local Ministry of Justice was in the process of asking Serbian authorities for their cooperation in the investigation, CoinDesk Korea reported.

Kwon left South Korea in April for Singapore, and went to Dubai in October, from where he went to Serbia, CoinDesk Korea reported. Authorities are concerned that he might have already moved to another country; his passport has been invalidated so authorities cannot check official records, according to the report.

Bloomberg had earlier reported that Kwon was in Europe.

Prosecutors asked for an arrest warrant for Terra's other co-founder, Daniel Shin, but courts denied the request as they don't believe he will flee or try to destroy evidence.


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Eliza Gkritsi is CoinDesk's crypto mining reporter based in Asia.


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