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Terraform Labs (LUNA) founder Do Kwon was charged by the U.S. authorities hours after he was arrested in Montenegro on Mar. 23, based on a Monetary Occasions report.
Kwon is accused of defrauding crypto clients and is dealing with eight felony counts — which embody securities, commodities, and wire fraud, because the Monetary Occasions article famous.
The U.S. prosecutors revealed a 12-page indictment on Mar.23 which acknowledged that Kwon was accused of:
“deceiving these people about facets of the Terra blockchain, together with its expertise and the extent to which it had been adopted by customers.”
The prosecutors additionally cited Kwon’s phrases from an interview he gave in October 2019, and his social media posts the next 12 months that had been “deceptive,” and due to this fact, topic to the costs. Kwon’s lawyer didn’t reply to the accusations.
Arrest in Montenegro
On Mar. 23, Montenegro officers introduced they arrested a person suspected to be Do Kwon within the nation’s capital Podgorica. Hours later, Montenegro’s Vice President Filip Adzic confirmed that the detained particular person was certainly Kwon himself through his Twitter account.
Adzic’s translated textual content acknowledged:
“Montenegrian police have detained an individual suspected of being some of the needed fugitives, South Korean citizen Do Kwon, co-founder, and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs.”
Nonetheless, even earlier than Adzic’s affirmation, the crypto neighborhood was assured that the arrested particular person was Kwon. In December 2022, Kwon was situated in Serbia, which shares a border with Montenegro. Korean prosecutors additionally confirmed Kwon’s arrest earlier than Adzic, saying that the age, nationality, and title matched Kwon’s.
Background
In Could 2022, TerraUSD (USDC) misplaced its peg and brought about the Terra ecosystem’s collapse, resulting in the emergence of the coldest crypto winter in historical past.
Quickly after the investigation began, the authorities accused Kwon of withdrawing $80 million monthly from the LUNA venture — which added as much as $2.7 billion. Kwon denied all of the allegations and lawyered up in August 2022.
Kwon went lacking after that. In September 2022, South Korean authorities requested Kwon’s return and cooperation with the investigations. Kwon responded by denying being on the run but additionally didn’t make any makes an attempt to contact the prosecutors. Throughout the similar month, South Korea requested for Interpol’s assist, which issued a purple discover for Do Kwon, requesting all prosecutors worldwide to find and arrest him.
In December 2022, Kwon was situated in Serbia. On the time, the authorities had been capable of detect that Kwon had fled to Serbia from Dubai. Nonetheless, the chase didn’t finish in an arrest. In February, South Korean authorities admitted that they traveled to Serbia for Kwon.
