Prosecutors reveal Do Kwon’s millions are not in South Korea: report

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

South Korean law enforcement has found no evidence of Terra founder Do Kwon’s wealth in the country after seizing property worth millions of dollars from his associates.

Officials from the prosecutors’ office disclosed to local news outlet KBS that it had scoured through a list of leads but failed to find any funds linked to Kwon in South Korea. Authorities claim that Kwon was at the center of a high-profile scam involving the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) collapse in 2022, triggering losses for thousands of investors.

The prosecutors say Kwon netted $71 million in the heist but left no identifiable assets in South Korea, unlike other associates. South Korean authorities announced the seizure of KRW414.5 billion ($315 million) from Terraform Labs executives over the last few months, with most of the assets being in real estate.

CEO of a Terraform Labs affiliate Kim Mo and another unnamed executive lost properties worth $60 million and $31 million to investigators, while eight more individuals connected to the Terraform Labs collapse, including co-founder Daniel Shin, had $100 million worth of assets confiscated. The prosecutors noted that the seizures are an integral process in the course of justice as they prevent suspects from moving assets out of the jurisdiction.

“We are still investigating the property ownership status of the suspects, and we plan to carry out collection preservation for the confirmed property in the future in order to recover the proceeds of crime and recover damages,” said a prosecutor.

Given the absence of Kwon’s funds in the country, prosecutors have written to global exchange Binance to freeze digital assets linked to the embattled founder. However, this is not the first time South Korean prosecutors are pushing for global exchanges to freeze funds belonging to Kwon, as in September 2022, authorities urged OKX and KuCoin to seize $29.6 million worth of assets.

However, Kwon denied all claims that he had assets on the platform, noting that he had not used OKX and KuCoin in the last 12 months.

The walls close in on Kwon

After nearly a year on the run, Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March while attempting to jet out to Dubai. The South Korean national was arrested with fake travel documents, and within days, both South Korea and the U.S. had thrown their hats in the ring for Kwon’s extradition.

Official documents revealed that Kwon registered a corporate entity in Serbia to carry out consultancy services despite a massive search after him. It remains unclear why Kwon floated a corporate entity in Serbia, but the Serbian Business Registry noted that it conducted relevant security checks that cleared Kwon and his business for registration.

Law & Order: Regulatory Compliance for Blockchain & Digital Assets