After months of persecution and hunting, one of the most wanted has fallen.
The South Korean police have reported that Do Kwon, the person allegedly responsible for the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrencies terraUSD and luna, which left losses close to US$40 billion, has been arrested in Montenegro.
The news was given by the Minister of the Interior of the Balkan country Filip Adzic, who through his Twitter account said that “one of the most wanted fugitives in the world” had been arrested at the Podgorica airport.
Kwon is requested not only by the justice of his country, but also by the American one, which accuses him and his company Terraform Labs of “orchestrating a multi-million dollar fraud with crypto assets.”
The company did not reply to BBC requests for comment on the apprehension of its chief executive officer.
The South Korean justice issued an arrest warrant for Kwon in September and asked the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for his arrest, considering that Terraform Labs had violated capital market legislation.
The Seoul authorities believed that the technologist, who is barely over thirty, was in Serbia, and therefore sent officials to Belgrade to negotiate, since both nations have no extradition treaty.
Police in Montenegro said Kwon had fake Costa Rican and Belgian passports seized from his luggage during the arrest, Reuters reported.
Kwon had denied that he was a fugitive or that they were on the run. This, despite the fact that he never revealed his whereabouts.
The Montenegrin authorities claimed that the fugitive was traveling under a false name and false documents. However, when comparing his fingerprints, his true identity was found.
In the United States, Kwon faces charges of securities, wire, commodity fraud and conspiracy, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in Manhattan, New York, District Court.
US authorities accused Kwon and Terraform Labs of “failing to provide the public with full, fair and truthful disclosure as is required for a large number of crypto asset securities, especially Luna and TerraUSD.”
Infant prodigy
Born in Seoul, Kwon studied Computer Science at the prestigious Stanford University (USA) and worked as a software engineer at Microsoft and Apple, until he founded Anyfi, a technology company dedicated to developing connectivity alternatives.
However, with the creation of Terraform Labs in 2018, it became known worldwide.
The Singapore-based firm is a software developer specialized in building payment systems based on blockchain technology (chain of blocks) and whose purpose was to build a financial system without banks or any intermediary.
Do Kwon went so far as to describe his luna cryptocurrency as “my greatest invention” and assured that it would change “the world.”
The entrepreneur’s confidence attracted a select group of investors whom he dubbed the “lunatics” (after the name of the coin).
In a short time, Terraform Labs raised millions and convinced heavyweights in the financial world to put huge sums into their algorithms. This, thanks in large measure to the good publicity that prestigious media gave it.
Forbes magazine came to consider the South Korean entrepreneur as one of the great professionals in the technological world.
However, in May 2022, against the backdrop of the cryptocurrency crash, the magic surrounding Kwon’s creations fizzled out and luna went from $118 to $0.09.
The brutal fall caused panic among investors, who went out to sell their cryptocurrencies en masse, causing a general collapse of the sector.
The run bankrupted companies like Celsius and Three Arrows Capital.
In the midst of the storm that left thousands of people without their savings, Kwon released: “I am heartbroken by the pain that my invention has caused everyone.”
However, in the middle of last year the technologist came to announce a new version of the moon.
And between apologies and announcements, the South Korean disappeared without a trace.
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