Original article: "Terra founder Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro. South Korea has been pursuing him for several months and may be extradited."
Author: Colin Wu
At 8:51 pm Beijing time on March 23, Montenegrin Interior Minister Filip Adzic tweeted: Montenegrin police detained a suspected wanted criminal, Do Kwon, a South Korean citizen, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs. The former "cryptocurrency king" who caused losses of more than $40 billion was detained at Podgorica Airport for forging documents. South Korea, the United States and Singapore have also made the same (detention) request. We are waiting for official confirmation of identity.
https://twitter.com/filip_adzic/status/1638886164118802432
Later, Yonhap News Agency reported that the National Police Agency of South Korea announced on the 23rd that the person presumed to be CEO Do Kwon and an assistant named Han were arrested by the Montenegrin authorities and are currently confirming their identities. The police asked Montenegrin to provide fingerprint information to confirm whether this person is really Do Kwon, and are currently waiting for a response. A person related to the National Police Agency said: "The age, nationality, and name were confirmed through his ID card, and the photo data confirmed that he is the same person as Do Kwon."
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20230323179251004?input=feed_police
Federal prosecutors in New York have charged Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon with fraud hours after Montenegro police arrested him. According to the complaint, Kwon is charged with conspiracy to defraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to manipulate markets. A spokesperson confirmed to CoinDesk that the U.S. Department of Justice will seek his extradition to the United States. The filing alleges that Kwon made a number of “untrue and misleading material statements of fact” over the past few years, citing television shows and tweets from accounts associated with Terraform Labs. The filing alleges that Kwon “contacted a representative of a U.S. trading and investment firm” seeking the firm’s help in “changing the market price of UST.” The SEC made similar allegations in its own complaint, and CoinDesk later reported that the firm appeared to be Jump Crypto.
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/03/23/do-kwon-now-faces-criminal-fraud-charges/
Local Montenegrin media revealed more information that two South Korean citizens, Kwon Do Hyeong and Hon Chang Joon, were arrested for criminal offences and taken to the grassroots State Prosecutor’s Office (ODT) in Podgorica, suspected of document forgery.
On March 23, 2023, during passport control on a flight to Dubai, the duo used forged travel documents from Costa Rica. During the luggage check, travel documents from Belgium and South Korea were also found. Interpol checks revealed that the Belgian documents were also forged. On the orders of the ODT, 3 laptops and 5 mobile phones were taken from them.
https://www.pobjeda.me/clanak/jedan-od-najtrazenijih-svjetskih-bjegunaca-uhapsen-u-podgorici
According to DLNEWS, Branko Stamenkovic, head of Serbia’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crimes, told DL News in an exclusive interview on Thursday that the last known time Kwon was in Serbia, Belgrade police have been tracking him and starting pre-extradition proceedings. “I don’t know what logic there is for him to come here, we are surprised… Maybe he thought that because we don’t have a bilateral extradition agreement with South Korea, he will be safe, but we are signatories to the same international treaty. If I knew where he was, we would arrest him immediately.”
South Korean officials have appeared to be closing in on locating Do Kwon for some time. In February, South Korean prosecutors traveled to Serbia to seek assistance in the hunt for Do Kwon. Leaving Serbia is not difficult, a landlocked country that shares a porous border with several Balkan countries. Serbian citizens do not need a passport to enter Montenegro, Bosnia and North Macedonia. "It is very likely that as a result of actions taken by Serbian prosecutors and police for extradition, arrest and additional evidence, the suspect fled the country and tried to seek refuge in the region," said the South Korean police chief.
The focus will now turn to whether Do Kwon can be extradited to South Korea to face fraud charges. Interpol issued a red notice seeking his detention after South Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him in September. Authorities in Singapore, where Terra is based, are also investigating Kwon. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently filed a civil lawsuit against Kwon and Terra.
https://www.dlnews.com/articles/people-culture/do-kwon-detained-montenegro-terra-fugitive-interpol/
Do Kwon was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1991. After receiving a bachelor's degree in computer science from Stanford University in 2015, he worked briefly as a software engineer for Microsoft and Apple. In January 2016, Kwon returned to South Korea to develop and founded his own startup Anyfi. Do Kwon then co-founded Terraform Labs and released Luna and the algorithmic stablecoin UST in 2018. Starting on May 9, 2022, UST suddenly decoupled and began to collapse. Luna fell from its historical high of $119.51 to "almost zero", wiping out nearly $45 billion in market value in a week. About 200,000 Korean Luna investors suffered losses.
