Woes facing troubled Terra Labs founder Do Kwon are deepening after South Korean authorities threatened to revoke his passport.
According to authorities, Kwon, whose whereabouts remain unknown, has been ordered to hand over the document within 14 days or be revoked as he faces the possibility of prosecution following the over $60 billion Terra (LUNA) ecosystem crash, South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
Following the crash, a Seoul court issued an arrest warrant against Kwon, requiring him to return to the country. Initially, it was assumed the founder was residing in Singapore.
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Kwon, who has since denied any wrongdoing in the crash, is also under a red notice issued by Interpol as he dismisses the fugitive status.
Luring Kwon back to South Korea
The directive to have Kwon surrender his passport can be viewed as one of the measures to lure him back to South Korea to face charges. Notably, Kwon is facing charges of fraud alongside five other people for allegedly violating South Korea’s capital-markets law. At the same time, one of Kwon’s associates in managing Terra Labs has since been arrested.
Consequently, the government has resorted to different measures to tame Kwon. For instance, prosecutors reportedly froze Kwon’s $40 million in assets.
Freezing Kwon’s assets
However, Kwon has since denied the allegation through Twitter, where he is active amid the legal troubles.
“I don’t get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood – muscle flexing? But to what end?Once again, I don’t even use Kucoin and OkEx, have no time to trade, no funds have been frozen. I don’t know whose funds they’ve frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good,” he said in a tweet on October 5.
This comes after South Korean prosecutors in September froze about $27.4 million belonging to Kwon held the KuCoin wallet while crypto exchange Okex has recently accepted government demands to freeze an additional $39.6 million.
Recently, allegations of fraud against Kwon have escalated after the emergence of suspicious transactions linked to the founder. Finbold reported on September 27 that Kwon allegedly transferred about 3,313 BTC after news emerged that South Korean prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for Kwon.
Featured image via Terra YouTube.
