Korean Prosecutors Freeze $40 Million Worth of Crypto Allegedly Belonging to Terraform Co-Founder Do Kwon

Reports show that South Korean authorities have frozen about $40 million worth of crypto assets allegedly in the possession of controversial Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon. Citing local news sources on his Twitter page yesterday, popular cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu noted:

According to News1, South Korean prosecutors have frozen $39.66m of crypto assets, including BTC, owned by Do Kwon through two exchanges. Do Kwon and LFG previously denied trying to transfer their 3,313 BTC after being issued an arrest warrant.https://t.co/kNxFRyeasD

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 5, 2022

According to Wu’s cited source, News1, the crypto assets were frozen on two crypto exchanges, including Kucoin and OKX, with both exchanges agreeing to freeze the assets at the request of prosecutors.

In September, Korean prosecutors announced that they had plans to seize a 3,313 BTC haul belonging to Kwon, alleging that the asset was linked to Luna Foundation Guard (LFG). However, LFG vehemently denied the allegation, arguing that it “hasn’t created any new wallets or moved BTC or other tokens held by LFG since May 2022.”

After the news of the freezing of $39.66 million worth of crypto assets tied to Kwon, the embattled Terra boss denied that the funds in question were his, noting: “I don’t get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood – muscle flexing? But to what end?” Kwon further tweeted:

“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.”

Terraform Do Kwon on the Run from Authorities?

Kwon was recently placed on Red Notice by Interpol after allegedly fleeing from prosecutors. According to information on the Interpol website, “A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Red Notices are issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence.”

Currently, Kwon’s whereabouts remain unknown. However, Kwon claims to not be “on the run,” previously tweeting that he’s “making zero effort to hide.”

I am not “on the run” or anything similar – for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide

— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) September 17, 2022