Do Kwon denies $39.9M worth of frozen crypto assets while facing passport revocation

October 6, 2022

Do Kwon, one of the co-founders of the now-defunct Terraform Labs, has slammed reports from South Korea claiming that prosecutors have recently frozen an additional $39.9 million worth of his cryptocurrency assets.

Replying to CoinDesk on Wednesday, Kwon, 31, denied the allegations that his assets were frozen, stating that he does not utilize Kucoin and OKX.

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“I don’t get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood – muscle flexing? But to what end?” Kwon, born Kwon Do-hyung, wrote on Twitter. “Once again, I don’t even use Kucoin and OkEx, have no time to trade, no funds have been frozen.”

“I don’t know whose funds they’ve frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good.”

Kwon’s latest post was in response to a report from News1 claiming that South Korean prosecutors had recently frozen an additional 56.2 billion won (approximately $39.9 million) worth of his cryptocurrency assets.

South Korean authorities allegedly put out a request to freeze Kwon’s 3,313 bitcoin (BTC) worth around $66.8 million after discovering that the cryptocurrencies were moved to his purported Kucoin and OKX crypto wallets, according to CoinDesk Korea on Sept. 27.

The transfer of assets reportedly happened shortly after the South Korean government issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and several others tied to the defunct cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD (UST) on Sept. 14. Interpol subsequently issued a red notice for the crypto entrepreneur days after the arrest warrant was issued.

Kwon and five other individuals linked to Terraform Labs are facing charges for violating South Korea’s Capital Markets Act for the $60 billion meltdown of the company’s cryptocurrencies in May.

On Wednesday, South Korean authorities declared that Kwon has 14 days to hand back his passport or they will revoke it, Bloomberg reported.

Terraform Labs’ Head of General Affairs Yoo Mo was also arrested on Wednesday, making the executive the first person to have been taken in custody since the launch of the Terra investigation in late May.

Although district prosecutor Choi Sung-kook confirmed the arrest, officials refused to give specific details regarding where and when Yoo was arrested. The Terra executive is facing several charges for violating South Korea’s Capital Markets Act, including fraud and breach of duty.

Featured Image via Terra / CNBC

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