South Korean authorities have discovered illegally obtained assets worth 414.5 billion won ($314.2 million) in possession of Terraform Labs’ co-founder, Do Kwon, and his associates. Out of this amount, about 91.4 billion won ($69 million) has been directly linked to Kwon.
Unfortunately, South Korean authorities are unable to recover any of Kwon’s assets as he is said to have converted most of the stolen funds into Bitcoin (BTC) via foreign crypto exchanges, rather than investing in tangible assets.
In an effort to recoup a portion of the misappropriated funds from the Terra-Luna debacle, South Korean authorities are actively pursuing properties associated with Terraform Labs executives.
On April 3, they seized homes and other assets to prevent former Terra workers from trading assets that could be involved in legal disputes. In addition to residences located in Seoul owned by former CEO Shin Hyun-seong and others, prosecutors initiated foreclosure proceedings against foreign-registered automobiles, lands in Hwaseong and Gapyeong in Gyeonggi-do, and Taean in South Chungcheong Province.
Terra Luna had seen explosive growth as a thriving crypto ecosystem, centered around the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD Classic (USTC). Unfortunately, in May 2022, the stablecoin’s depegging caused the entire $40 billion ecosystem to crumble within days.
While the infamous crash was initially believed to have been caused by market fluctuations, it was later revealed that the former CEO, Kwon, was at the center of a clear fraud scheme. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subsequently filed a lawsuit against Do Kwon for allegedly orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud.
Despite South Korean authorities issuing an arrest warrant and Interpol having a red notice against him, Kwon managed to evade arrest for almost a year until his capture on March 23 in Montenegro.
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