Kwon Do-hyeong or Do Kwon, the South Korean responsible for the $40bn collapse of the cryptocurrencies terraUSD and Luna, has been arrested in Montenegro, Interpol said on Friday.
The 31-year-old was arrested earlier on Thursday along with another South Korean citizen after his fingerprints matched the official records.
“The person is suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean national Do Kwon, a co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based Terraform Labs,” Interior Minister Filip Adzic wrote on Twitter.
The minister added that he was travelling under a false name with fake documents. Authorities were waiting for official confirmation of the man’s identity, he said.
Both men were intercepted while attempting to board a flight to Dubai using “falsified travel documents from Costa Rica, which was established also by Interpol checks”, the ministry said in a statement.
Kwon was the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs – the firm behind the Terra ecosystem coins LUNA and LUNC. In May 2022, both coins lost their value within days, wiping about $40 billion of the investor’s wealth and setting off panic across the crypto sector. His Terraform Labs is based in Singapore.
The South Korean fugitive was wanted in the US and in his country. However, whether he will be tried in Korea or US is yet to be determined as Montenegro does not have extradition treaties with either country.
An arrest warrant for Kwon was issued last September by South Korean authorities, who said that his company Terraform Labs violated capital market rules.
Earlier this year, the US regulators accused Kwon and his company of “orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud”. He has also been separately charged with fraud by the prosecutors.
Kwon has previously denied he was in hiding but never revealed his location.
(With inputs from agencies)
For all the latest business News Click Here
