Korean prosecutors ask Interpol to issue red notice for Terra coin mastermind Do Kwon

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Korean prosecutors ask Interpol to issue red notice for Terra coin mastermind Do Kwon

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
Korean prosecutors asked Interpol to issue a red notice for Do Kwon, saying the mastermind behind the failed Terra coins is not cooperating with the investigation of the collapse.
 
“We have begun the procedure to place him on the Interpol red notice list and revoke his passport,” the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said, according to a report from Financial Times on Monday.
 
Prosecutors are seeking permission from Korea’s Foreign Ministry to have Kwon’s passport revoked. If successful, Kwon would have to return to Korea within two weeks, according to policy.
 
An Interpol red notice is issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence. It is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action, according to Interpol.
 
The prosecutors said earlier this week that Kwon is on the run.
 
Prosecutors say that Kwon went to Singapore in April, a month before the crash of Terra coins, and may have been on the run at that point, according to a report by Yonhap published on Sunday.
 
“Issuing an arrest warrant was possible because there were clear indications that Kwon was on the run,” Yonhap quoted a prosecutor as saying.
 
The sources, from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, added that the circumstances at the time of his departure indicated that he was fleeing to avoid investigation.
 
The prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and five others, including Nicholas Platias, who was head of research at Terraform Labs until August 2020.
 
Kwon said that they have “never been in touch with the investigators” in an interview with Coinage that was released last month. “They haven’t reached out to us at all.”
 
Kwon and Daniel Shin are co-founders of Terraform Labs, a company behind TerraUSD and Luna.
 
Almost the entire value of the coins was wiped out in the crash in May, accelerating the fall of other cryptocurrencies.
 

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]
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