Global Wanted Persons Notice for Do Kwon Issued: Report
Do Kwon’s Red Notice comes a week after the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office requested the step from Interpol
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key takeaways
- A Red Notice is a worldwide request to arrest a suspect from Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization
- Kwon was previously seen in Singapore, though authorities there deny he is no longer residing in the city-state
Interpol has issued a global request to arrest Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, Bloomberg reported. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office confirmed the development Sunday after it requested Interpol issue him a Red Notice at the beginning of last week.
A Red Notice, while not the same as an arrest warrant, is a request at the behest of a member country to law enforcement worldwide for the location and arrest of an individual pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.
Kwon, rumored to have been living in Singapore after leaving his home country of South Korea, is wanted for charges relating to his involvement in Terra’s collapse earlier this year.
South Korean prosecutors said last week Kwon was “obviously on the run” from authorities and was refusing to cooperate. Kwon later denied those claims in a series of tweets, saying at the time he did not “have anything to hide.”
Earlier this month and more than four months after Terra’s implosion, a South Korean court issued a national warrant for his arrest, leading to the request by prosecutors to Interpol.
At the beginning of May, aggressive liquidations created a hyperinflationary death spiral for Terra’s LUNA token and UST, wiping out nearly $30 billion from the Terra ecosystem and a further $30 billion from the wider crypto market.
Terra’s collapse sent a seismic contagion shockwave throughout the crypto market in May, triggering billions of dollars in losses across its ecosystem as well as across projects, lenders and hedge funds.
“In hindsight, I think we should have been more skeptical,” Kwon said during an interview with Coinage last month. At the time, the founder blamed a leak from within his company that ultimately led to the stablecoin’s downward spiral.
The failed algorithmic stablecoin project has also drawn additional attention to the industry from lawmakers in the EU and US, who have since crafted legislation designed, they say, to reduce or prevent further stablecoin harm.
“INTERPOL cannot compel the law enforcement authorities in any country to arrest someone who is the subject of a Red Notice,” an agency FAQ reads.
Whether the global notice results in Do Kwon’s arrest will depend on his actual location and the local authorities’ willingness to act on it.
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