Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs and creator of the Terra stablecoin, has been charged with eight counts of fraud by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, including “wire fraud, commodity fraud, securities and conspiracy to defraud”. and engage in market manipulation.” according The New York Times. Prosecutors have told the media they will seek Kwon’s extradition.
The charges follow his apparent arrest in Montenegro on Thursday, which was first reported through social media posts by Montenegro’s Interior Minister Filip Adzic. On twitter (where you are not verified, either by Twitter Blue or by legacy means), and On Facebook (where verified, but facebook blue checks have been wrong before).
Yonhap News in Corea reports that the South Korean national police are waiting for fingerprint confirmation that the arrested person is actually Do Kwon.
Last year, the collapse of the Terra/Luna algorithmic stablecoin ecosystem was one of the first events in the industry downfall, which the SEC says constituted a massive fraud that evaporated more than $40 billion in value. There were reports that Interpol issued a “red notice” for Kwon, as US and South Korean prosecutors attempted to arrest him despite Kwon’s tweets. claiming “I’m not ‘on the run’ or anything like that.”
According Yonhap NewsThe Korean police made a statement about the arrest, saying, “We verified the age, nationality, and name with the ID card the person had, and confirmed that it was the same person as CEO Kwon with photographic data.”
Update March 23, 8:31 pm ET: Kwon has been charged with fraud by federal prosecutors.
