South Korean law enforcement agencies are upping the ante for the arrest of the embattled Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, and the latest in the long line of efforts involves a trip to Serbia.
A Bloomberg report confirmed speculations that South Korean officials traveled to the Balkan nations as part of efforts to arrest Kwon. The report noted that at least two officials drawn from the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor’s office met with Serbian authorities at the start of the week.
There is widespread speculation among local South Korean news outlets that Kwon has been hiding out in Serbia since December 2022, but the fugitive founder continues to protest his innocence via Twitter.
Do Kwon has been on the run since the collapse of Terra’s ecosystem, elicited by the de-pegging of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) from the U.S. dollar. In the days that followed the collapse, authorities sought to invite Kwon for questioning leading up to the issuance of an arrest warrant by the courts.
Since his disappearance, the South Korean Ministry of Interior has invalidated his passport while the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) placed a red notice on Kwon. Multiple reports claim that the embattled founder took refuge in Hong Kong before heading to Serbia through Dubai.
At the moment, there is no extradition treaty between Serbia and South Korea, but the recent visit from Korean officials could change the state of things between both nations.
“It seems that Do Kwon decided to escape with the fact that Serbia is a country that is not quick to cooperate with Interpol in investigations,” an official from the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Twitter is home for Kwon
Despite being on the run, Kwon has maintained an active social media presence using the microblogging site Twitter. The embattled founder leveraged the platform in 2022 to launch a Terra comeback and to continuously maintain his innocence that he is not in breach of any Capital Markets Laws.
“I find that Twitter is a good place for rumors but a poor place to get facts,” wrote Kwon on Twitter. “I’ve stolen no money and never had secret cashouts – happy to address specific allegations.”
Has he returned the stolen money yet? All that money he secretly cashed out, lied about, that was then tracked down forensically? I believe in second chances…after people own their mistakes and take the consequences…
— Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) January 31, 2023
Kwon faces a slew of legal cases, including a class-action suit from embattled investors and a fraud investigation from South Korean prosecutors. Investigators have been hounding Kwon’s former business associates leading to multiple raids and asset seizures.
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