South Korean Prosecutors freeze ~$40m of Do Kwon’s Crypto Assets

Lavina Daryanani
Source: Bloomberg

Regulators around the world have been seeking the arrest of Terra founder Do Kwon. A host of cases have been filed against the executive allegedly blaming him for the wipeout of LUNA and UST—two cryptos belonging to the Terra ecosystem. Towards the end of September, the International Criminal Police Organization [Interpol] issued a Red Notice against the Terra founder. 

Korean officials have also accused Kwon and five others of crimes including breaches of capital-markets law. Alongside, prosecutors also confirmed recently that there was “circumstantial evidence of escape” pertaining to Kwon.

Read More – Interpol Issues Worldwide Arrest Warrant For Terra founder Do Kwon

Do Kown’s assets, including Bitcoin, reportedly frozen

Now, according to reports, South Korean prosecutors have frozen roughly $40 million worth of crypto assets, including Bitcoin, owned by the Terra executive. Per a local media report,

According to the legal community on the 5th, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Joint Financial Securities Crime Investigation Team (Director Dan Seong-han) additionally froze 56.2 billion won on the 27th of last month, in addition to the already frozen 38.8 billion won of the 95 billion won worth of assets that Kwon had attempted to conceal.

The freeze was reportedly made via the cooperation of two virtual asset exchanges, where Do Kwon tried to hide the assets.

At press time, the Terra Founder responded to the recent allegation and he was quick to respond to the current situation. Retweeting one of the reports, He tweeted,

“I don’t get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood – muscle flexing? But to what end? Once again, I don’t even use Kucoin and OKEx, have no time to trade, and no funds have been frozen. I don’t know whose funds they’ve frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good.”

Here it is worth recalling that towards the end of September, it was reported that Luna Foundation Guard [LFG] transferred roughly 3313 Bitcoins worth over $69 million to two crypto exchanges operating outside South Korea. The same was carried out shortly after the arrest warrant for Kwon was issued on the 14th of September.

Alongside, it was revealed that South Korean prosecutors managed to freeze some of the transferred Bitcoin. It was brought to light that the LFG abruptly created a wallet on Binance on the 15th of September, soon after which 3313 BTC was transferred to both Kucoin and OKX wallets. Luna Foundation Guard and Do Kwon, however, denied moving funds and opposed other prosecutor allegations too.

Read More – Luna Foundation Guard denies moving Bitcoin: Do Kwon Responds