Terra Founder Withdraw 3k Bitcoin After Interpol Notice?
According to several reports, authorities in South Korea have ordered crypto exchanges OKX and KuCoin to freeze funds linked to Terra founder Do Kwon. In total, the platforms froze over 5,000 BTC or about $60 million at the current market price.
As Bitcoinist reported, South Korean authorities launched an investigation against the Terra (LUNA) founder and the company behind the cryptocurrency, Terraform Labs. Authorities concluded that Kwon allegedly violated the country’s securities laws and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Events escalated yesterday when the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) joined the effort and issued a “Red Notice”, an arrest warrant enforceable by members of the law enforcement organization, against the Terra founder.
Do Kwon denied there was an arrest warrant in place and said the following about his whereabouts, he was suspected to be located somewhere in Singapore after moving operations from South Korea:
I write code in my living room (…). Yeah, like I said, I make no effort to hide that I go on walks and malls, no way some CT (Crypto Twitter) hasn’t bumped into me in the last couple of weeks.
Now, law enforcement agencies have moved to cripple Kwon’s financial resources. According to a Bloomberg report, the Terra founder began moving funds linked to the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) following the Interpol Red Notice.
LFG is an entity created by Terraform Labs to protect the pin of the fallen algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST). These funds were allegedly controlled by the society, with no control by Kwon or other members of the company.
South Korea steps up efforts to apprehend Terra founder Do Kwon
A report from CoinDesk Korea claims that the funds were moved from September 15th until 18th, as mentioned, around 3300 were transferred to KuCoin and around 1950 to OKX. The Bitcoin funds were transferred in 4 to 5 transactions.
OKX was initially reluctant to cooperate with the fund freeze orders, but now appears to be cooperating with South Korean authorities. A representative of the exchange so:
We have frozen the relevant account and intend to do everything we can to cooperate with the relevant law enforcement agency as necessary.
According to the report, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office and the Securities Crimes Joint Investigation Team suspect that the funds are part of a money laundering scheme that will enable Do Kwon to avoid the arrest warrant.
At the time of writing, Do Kwon is still at large and his current whereabouts are unknown. South Korean agencies are reportedly “securing new recruits” to step up efforts to apprehend the Terra founder.
