Where in the World is Do Kwon? Terra CEO Says ‘I’m Not On The Run’

Do Kwon, the crypto developer behind failed stablecoin ecosystem Terra, addressed his legal problems in a candid tweet thread on Saturday

article-image

Do Kwon interviewed; Source: Coinage

share

key takeaways

  • South Korean prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for multiple Terraform insiders including CEO Do Kwon
  • They were believed to be in Singapore, but police have said Kwon is currently not in the city-state

Do Kwon, rumored to have been living in Singapore since his crypto project Terra collapsed, now claims he isn’t evading authorities and wants to clarify “the truth” about what happened.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the Terra and Luna founder said he’s open to providing details about his location to certain people and further shed light on what he’s been up to.

South Korean prosecutors said on Sunday that Kwon was “obviously on the run” and isn’t cooperating, according to Yonhap News. They said Kwon flew to Singapore in April to evade investigation and dissolved the firm’s Korean-based Terra branch.

“I am not ‘on the run’ or anything similar,” Kwon wrote. “For any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.”

“We are in the process of defending ourselves in multiple jurisdictions — we have held ourselves to an extremely high bar of integrity, and look forward to clarifying the truth over the next few months.” He closed his tweet thread with “Cheers!” and an emoji of two wine glasses clinking.

Last week, a court issued the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office six arrest warrants for former employees working at the startup, including Do Kwon and financial officer Han Mo, over alleged breaches of securities and capital markets law.

Their information was also sent to Interpol member states via a Red Notice, enabling their arrest in multiple jurisdictions. Exact losses felt by Terra investors are difficult to calculate, but terraUSD and its sister token luna were together worth more than $41 billion just before they imploded.

Loading Tweet..

According to South Korean reports, all wanted individuals were residing in Singapore at the time the arrest warrants were issued. But Singapore police told Reuters on Saturday that Kwon is currently not there. They added they would help South Korean prosecutors within their authorized scope and international obligations, but didn’t clarify the whereabouts of the others.

It would be difficult for Kwon to travel from wherever he may be at the moment as prosecutors are also in the process of invalidating his passport. Still, that process may be delayed as South Korean authorities were coordinating with Singapore for the return of five passports belonging to Terraform affiliates.

Kwon joked in a tweet that he hadn’t been running for sometime now and should possibly start. “Tbh [to be honest, I haven’t] gone running in a while, need to cut some calories.”

So, at this stage, Kwon’s whereabouts remain a mystery.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 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.

recent research

4.png

Research

This months PPGC covered four main areas. Firstly, debriefing the progress and status of the mainnet implementation of the Ahmedabad hard fork. Secondly, a retrospective on the testnet phase of the Ahemdabad Hard Fork. Thirdly, an update on PIP-36 which involves replaying failed state syncs. Lastly, PIP-47 which pushes upgrades to the Polygon Protocol Council.

article-image

Multiple teams are pursuing integration cross-chain and off-chain

article-image

An SEC spokesperson told Blockworks the Ripple judgment clashes with Supreme Court precedent and securities laws

article-image

Both parties now embrace pro-crypto policies to win voters

article-image

Plus, how we are feeling about Gurbir Grewal’s departure from the SEC

article-image

Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria has been working in the new Visa Tokenized Asset Platform sandbox

article-image

The retail crowd is engaging with Robinhood both on and off chain, general manager Johann Kerbrat said