The co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs denied that South Korean prosecutors have frozen about $67mn of his cryptocurrency assets, while South Korean authorities began the process to revoke his passport.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said on Thursday that Do Kwon’s bitcoin holdings in two exchanges, OKX and KuCoin, were frozen.
“I don’t get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood — muscle flexing? But to what end?” Kwon said on Twitter on Wednesday. “I don’t know whose funds they’ve frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good.”
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 ? https://t.co/gSucKfqsxj
— Do Kwon ? (@stablekwon) October 5, 2022
Blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said last month that the Luna Foundation Guard, a non-profit organisation set up in Singapore to promote terraUSD’s growth, created a digital wallet on crypto exchange Binance on September 15. The group added that 3,313 bitcoins — worth about $67mn — were transferred to KuCoin and OKX over the following three days.
The two exchanges have accepted Korean authorities’ requests to freeze the assets, the prosecutors’ office said. But it declined to say how they determined that the assets belonged to Kwon.
Seoul’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said Kwon’s passport would be revoked if he did not return it in the next two weeks, piling pressure on him to return to his homeland and face charges of financial fraud and breach of the country’s capital market laws.
Interpol has issued a red notice for Kwon as he refuses to co-operate with South Korean prosecutors’ investigation into the $40bn implosion of the terraUSD and luna tokens that has affected hundreds of thousands of investors. Kwon has not been located but has denied that he is on the run. He could not be reached for comment.
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