Before you read:
South Korean prosecutors believe Do Kwon, the co-founder of the defunct cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD (UST), may be hiding in Serbia after fleeing several countries throughout this year.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office announced on Monday that South Korea would be working with Serbia to locate and arrest Kwon, whose real name is Kwon Do-hyung.
While South Korea and Serbia do not have an extradition treaty, the two countries have reportedly worked together in the past to extradite individuals under the European Convention on Extradition.
The defamed cryptocurrency founder reportedly moved from South Korea to Singapore in April and then relocated to Dubai in October before moving to Serbia.
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter
A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.
Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.
Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.
Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, was embroiled in controversy after UST and Luna lost $40 billion in value in a matter of days back in May.
His company tried to revive Luna in early September, but the value of the cryptocurrency took a nose dive after South Korea issued an arrest warrant on Kwon.
Shortly after the arrest warrant was issued, Interpol granted South Korea’s request to release a red notice for the 31-year-old Stanford University graduate, effectively making him an international fugitive.
Days after issuing the red notice, South Korean prosecutors claimed they had frozen $39.9 million worth of cryptocurrency assets owned by Kwon, which he denied in a tweet on Sep. 17.
Kwon is facing charges related to fraud and breaches of South Korea’s capital markets law.
Featured Image via Terra
Related stories:
