Before Fleeing Abroad, Do Kwon Converts All Of His Assets Into Bitcoin

Terra LUNA founder, Do Kwon, took the funds away after converting them into Bitcoin. (Photo; Doc. Beamstart)

JAKARTA - South Korean authorities have reportedly found that Terraform Labs CEO and co-founder Do Kwon have no assets in his country. According to local KBS media reports, prosecutors have tracked Terraform Labs' domestic wealth, which is thought to have come from profits from Terra's (LUNA) fall.

Kwon and his colleagues are reported to have earned a total of 414.5 billion won or about US$314.2 million (Rp4.6 trillion), with Terraform Labs CEO holding 91.4 billion won or US$69 million (approximately Rp1 trillion) from the fund. However, South Korean authorities were unable to freeze Kwon's assets as he appeared to have converted most of his property into Bitcoin (BTC) and sent it to overseas exchanges, according to the report.

A prosecutor's official told KBS, "It was found that there is almost no property owned by CEO Kwon in this country." The report said prosecutors had asked Binance to block Kwon from being able to withdraw crypto assets on the exchange.

South Korean authorities issued arrest warrants for Kwon in September following the fall of LUNA and UST in May 2022. Kwon escaped but was arrested at Podgorica Airport in Montenegro last month while trying to board a plane to Dubai with a fake passport from Costa Rica.

Currently Kwon is being held in Montenegro while he is awaiting investigation into his use of fake travel documents. Affected investors from the fall of LUNA and UST have asked authorities to sue Kwon and seek compensation for their losses.

Terraform Labs itself has announced that it will return 100 percent of the funds to the affected investors from the fall of LUNA and UST. However, some investors have said they have yet to receive their refunds and that the process looks slow.

Do Kwon's case also shows how important strict regulations are in the crypto industry. Crypto is still an unregulated market, and underprivileged regulations can pose risks to investors and make cases like this difficult to handle. Therefore, strict and fair crypto regulation is needed to maintain investor confidence and prevent cases like this from happening again in the future.