Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro, the banking crisis may have started from him
The US Judiciary Indicts South Korean Do Kwon, Founder of Cryptocurrency Terra, Accused of Lying to Investors Who Lost Nearly $40 Billion last year, according to documents seen by AFP. Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in possession of “false documents” and faces eight charges. He was the subject of an Interpol red notice. Attention. It’s not a trivial story. According to Corriere della Sera, “Do Kwon could be a sort of “patient zero” of the crisis that has been going on in the financial markets in recent weeks. It is in those months of collapse of the financial system built around cryptocurrencies that it can at least partially be sought one of the possible fuses that triggered the crisis of recent weeks”.
According to the indictment, Kwon “deliberately deceived investors on numerous aspects”. The man was arrested Thursday in Montenegro, together with his financial director Hon Chang Joon, according to reports from the interior minister of the Balkan country. “Montenegrin police have arrested a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives in the world, South Korean Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs,” Filip Adzic announced on Twitter. The two were arrested at the airport in the capital, Podgorica, in possession of “false documents” while trying to board a plane to Dubai with false Belgian and Costa Rican passports, with an arrest warrant issued by their country of origin pending. “We are awaiting official confirmation of their identity,” said Filip Adzic.
In September, Interpol had issued an alert to locate him, at the request of South Korean prosecutors. Prosecutors had asked the South Korean Foreign Ministry to revoke his passport, saying Do Kwon was a “fugitive”. The US stock market regulator and regulator, the SEC, launched proceedings in mid-February against Do Kwon for “orchestrating a multibillion-dollar cryptoasset fraud”.
Seoul will ask Montenegro to extradite Do Kwon
South Korea to seek the extradition of crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon, after the founder of Terraform was arrested in Montenegro and charged with fraud in the United States. Kwon, whose full name is Kwon Do-hyung, has been charged with fraud over the dramatic collapse of his company Terraform Lab last year, which wiped out an estimated $40 billion of investor money and rocked global crypto markets . The 31-year-old was arrested at Podgorica airport in Montenegro on a South Korean warrant. Soon after, the United States charged him with eight counts, including securities fraud and wire fraud, following a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In South Korea, where Kwon is wanted for violation of the capital markets law, the authorities have confirmed they will request his extradition. “South Korean prosecutors will take steps to repatriate Kwon Do-hyung. We are working on the process,” Kim Hee-kyung, spokesman for the South District Prosecutor’s Office in Seoul, told AFP.
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