An individual suspected to be Do Kwon, a world fugitive accused of defrauding buyers in a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency scheme, has been arrested in Montenegro, the nation’s inside minister stated Thursday.
Crypto entrepreneur and Terraform Labs founder is needed in South Korea in reference to a $40 billion crash of the agency’s cryptocurrency that devastated retail buyers around the globe.
“The person is suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean national Do Kwon, a co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based Terraform Labs,” Filip Adzic, the Montenegrin inside minister, wrote on Twitter.
Montenegrin authorities had been awaiting official affirmation of the identification of a person who was arrested on the airport within the capital, Podgorica, with false paperwork, however they consider it’s Kwon, Adzic added.
South Korea requested Interpol in September to flow into a “red notice” for the 31-year-old throughout the company’s 195 member nations to seek out and apprehend him.
South Korean police stated a suspect regarded as Do Kwon, and one other particular person, regarded as a person named Han Chang-Joon, had been arrested in Montenegro.
“We have not yet received fingerprints from Montenegro, but we plan to have final identity verification by tomorrow morning,” an official on the Korean National Police Agency advised Reuters.
In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to Kwon and Terraform Labs in Manhattan federal courtroom, accusing them of defrauding buyers in what the regulator deemed a multibillion-dollar scheme.
“The former cryptocurrency king who is behind losses of over $40 billion, has been apprehended at the Podgorica airport with forged documents. The same person is being sought by South Korea, the United States and Singapore,” Adzic stated.
A police officer who requested to not be named advised Reuters that an identification process was underway.
“If the identity of that person is confirmed, he will be placed in extradition detention,” he stated.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating the 2022 collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin and had questioned former group members of Terraform Labs, which was behind the stablecoin.
TerraUSD was designed as a stablecoin, which is pegged to secure belongings just like the U.S. greenback to stop drastic fluctuations in costs. However, round $40 billion in market worth was erased for the holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister foreign money, Luna, after the stablecoin plunged far beneath its $1 peg in May.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
