South Korean Authorities Freeze IDR 1.6 Trillion In Funds From Terraforms Labs Co-Founder, Shin Hyun-Seong

One of Terra's co-founders, Shin Hyun-seong. (photo: twitter @RamsesBusiness)

JAKARTA – The news of the bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange has stolen the attention of other ecosystems that fell before. But the South Korean authorities are continuing their efforts to shut down the victim of the first crypto crash of the year, Terraform Labs.

Nearly six months after the Terra blockchain was officially terminated, South Korean authorities froze approximately US$104.4 million (IDR 1.6 trillion) from co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong, better known as Daniel Shin, based on suspicions of improper profits. fair.

The decision to freeze more than $104 million worth of Shin's assets was approved by the Seoul Southern District Court, based on a request from prosecutors. Claims regarding Shin's involvement in the sale of Terra's pre-issued LUNA tokens to unwary investors.

Based on suspicions of profiting from the unwarranted sale of LUNA, a district court has frozen the funds allegedly stolen until further investigations are carried out, local news media YTN reported.

"Reports that CEO Shin Hyun-Seong sold Luna at a high point and realized a profit or that he profited through other illegal methods are untrue," said investigators, as quoted by Cointelegraph.

Preindictment preservation of the fund is a way to prevent bad actors from disposing of stolen funds and causing more damage or financial loss to investors.

Shin is currently being investigated by South Korean authorities for two charges of making an unfair advantage from the internal issuance of LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) tokens and leaking customer transaction information of Chai, a Korean payment app linked to Terra, to Terraform Labs.

On November 14, South Korean prosecutors asked one of the accused founders to appear in court as part of an investigation into the company's collapse.

In the first week of November, prosecutors accused Terra co-founder Do Kwon of manipulating Terra's prices.

“It is very disappointing to see Korean prosecutors continue to try to twist the Capital Markets Act to fit their agenda and push baseless claims. Previous judicial decisions and statements by Korean financial authorities, including the FSC, stipulate that cryptocurrency tokens are not securities of investment contracts,” a Terraform Labs spokesperson said in a written statement to Cointelegraph.