2 years ago
Terraform Labs (LUNA) laminitis Do Kwon was charged by the U.S. authorities hours aft helium was arrested successful Montenegro connected Mar. 23, according to a Financial Times report.
Kwon is accused of defrauding crypto customers and is facing 8 transgression counts — which see securities, commodities, and ligament fraud, arsenic the Financial Times article noted.
The U.S. prosecutors published a 12-page indictment connected Mar.23 which stated that Kwon was accused of:
“deceiving those individuals astir aspects of the Terra blockchain, including its exertion and the grade to which it had been adopted by users.”
The prosecutors besides cited Kwon’s words from an interrogation helium gave successful October 2019, and his societal media posts the pursuing twelvemonth that were “misleading,” and therefore, taxable to the charges. Kwon’s lawyer did not respond to the accusations.
Arrest successful Montenegro
On Mar. 23, Montenegro officials announced they arrested an idiosyncratic suspected to beryllium Do Kwon successful the country’s superior Podgorica. Hours later, Montenegro’s Vice President Filip Adzic confirmed that the detained idiosyncratic was so Kwon himself via his Twitter account.
Adzic’s translated substance stated:
“Montenegrian constabulary person detained a idiosyncratic suspected of being 1 of the astir wanted fugitives, South Korean national Do Kwon, co-founder, and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs.”
However, adjacent earlier Adzic’s confirmation, the crypto assemblage was assured that the arrested idiosyncratic was Kwon. In December 2022, Kwon was located successful Serbia, which shares a borderline with Montenegro. Korean prosecutors besides confirmed Kwon’s apprehension earlier Adzic, saying that the age, nationality, and sanction matched Kwon’s.
Background
In May 2022, TerraUSD (USDC) mislaid its peg and caused the Terra ecosystem’s collapse, starring to the emergence of the coldest crypto wintertime successful history.
Soon aft the probe started, the authorities accused Kwon of withdrawing $80 cardinal per period from the LUNA task — which added up to $2.7 billion. Kwon denied each the allegations and lawyered up successful August 2022.
Kwon went missing aft that. In September 2022, South Korean authorities requested Kwon’s instrumentality and practice with the investigations. Kwon responded by denying being connected the tally but besides didn’t marque immoderate attempts to interaction the prosecutors. Within the aforesaid month, South Korea asked for Interpol’s help, which issued a reddish notice for Do Kwon, requesting each prosecutors worldwide to find and apprehension him.
In December 2022, Kwon was located successful Serbia. At the time, the authorities were capable to observe that Kwon had fled to Serbia from Dubai. However, the pursuit didn’t extremity successful an arrest. In February, South Korean authorities admitted that they traveled to Serbia for Kwon.
The station Do Kwon charged successful the US pursuing confirmed apprehension successful Montenegro appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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