South Korean Authorities ‘in the Process’ of Freezing Do Kwon’s Assets

Do Kwon’s arrest is just the tip of the iceberg for South Korean prosecutors

article-image

Artwork by Axel Rangel modified by Blockworks

share

South Korean authorities await a court order to freeze $5.3 million of Terraform co-founder Do Kwon’s assets.

They’re also working to track down overseas proceeds and Swiss bank accounts. Prosecutors have reportedly asked Binance to stop any withdrawals from Kwon on the crypto exchange. 

Kwon has been under investigation by officials in his home country since last fall, when authorities claim Kwon refused to cooperate. Prosecutors are investigating Kwon for fraud, tax evasion, deception of investors and capital markets laws violations.

An Interpol red notice — a call to law enforcement across the world designed to allow arrests and make it difficult for criminals to cross borders — was issued back in September after South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and accused him of being on the run. 

That ultimately led to his arrest in March, at the airport in Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro. 

Both South Korea and the United States are now looking to extradite Kwon, though he currently faces a local investigation into the validity of his passport. Extradition to either country isn’t expected to happen soon.

South Korea invalidated Kwon’s passport back in November. Prior to his arrest, Kwon claimed that he was not on the run, but kept his location private due to safety concerns. 

The US has charged him with fraud, and conspiring to manipulate the price of TerraUSD. 

He also faces a lawsuit in Singapore brought by 369 investors who claim to lost around $57 million in the TerraUSD collapse. Investors claim Kwon made “fraudulent misrepresentations” about the stability of the stablecoin and seek damages. 

The algorithmic stablecoin Kwon co-founded, TerraUSD, lost its dollar peg last May and wiped $40 billion in value from cryptocurrency markets, with $20.5 billion of that coming from personal wallets according to Chainalysis.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

However, they noted there’s now an increased risk that unemployment and inflation will rise in the coming months. 

article-image

The network’s most ambitious upgrade since the Merge brings validator streamlining, smart account UX and doubled blobspace to Ethereum

article-image

Debate over extra Bitcoin use cases has returned, two years on from Ordinals

article-image

Altcoin season may be on a permanent pause as the market matures and paths grow more selective

article-image

Today’s blockchains are more like nervous systems without a brain — wiring without will

article-image

A number of blockchains make use of the Solana Virtual Machine