Dictator Do Kwon: His Escape For The Past 10 Months
Key Points:
- Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has finally been arrested after hiding from the law for the past 10 months.
- During the time he was on the run, he always denied the mistake he had made.
- The collapse of Terra/Luna in 2022 has had serious consequences for the crypto market.
Do Kwon, the dictator who once admired the crypto community for his dream of changing the blockchain world, was finally arrested in Montenegro. Considered one of the market’s biggest influencers in 2022, all that is now a thing of the past. Let’s look back at Coincu’s journey in which he has struggled to hide from the law.
Biography of the founder of Terraform Labs
Do Kwon studied computer science at Stanford University. In 2015, he earned his bachelor’s degree. He has worked as a software developer for companies like Apple and Microsoft.
Do Kwon established the Anyfi telecoms firm in 2016. Peer-to-peer communication technology solutions provider. He also served as the company’s CEO until 2017.
Terraform Labs was created in 2018 by him and Daniel Shin. This is a blockchain technology startup that aspires to develop cryptocurrency. Terra Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus technology was created by this corporation. A blockchain network based on the Cosmos SDK.
He is also engaged in a variety of personal investments totaling millions of dollars. As well as crypto initiatives like as Flint, Iron Fish, Ape Board, and pSTAKE.
The beginning of the disaster
Laura Shin, former senior editor of Forbes and director of Unchained, interviewed Do Kwon about the Luna ecosystem on March 29, 2022, when LUNA was at its peak. Do Kwon revealed on the podcast that LUNA is at risk of entering a death spiral due to severe market demand shifts.
The over $20 billion Luna ecosystem of TVL collapsed a month after the audio broadcast aired. When victim Luna comes to Do Kwon’s residence and discovers that no one is there, Kwon’s whereabouts become a mystery.
TerraUSD, the stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem, was released in 2020 with the goal of keeping the price of one US dollar steady. And it performs its job well, seldom deviating from the $1 pricing point. Nonetheless, the Terra stablecoin has lately plunged to a low of $0.23. Several investors have lost billions of dollars as the value of this currency has fallen.
Beginning on May 8, when the price of UST began to show symptoms of falling below $1. It began to fall to as low as 0.98 within the day. After that, the UST exchange rate was not only conquered but also began to fall more severely. On May 9, the value of UST plummeted by roughly 25%. It continued to fall until it reached a low of $0.06 on May 10.
However, LUNA, the Terra ecosystem’s native token, has lost more than 70% of its value in only one week.
As can be seen, the Luna/Terra project failed and could not be revived. There have been initiatives that have failed in the past, such as Luna. All of these persons are referred to as super cheaters. Thus, is Do Kwon regarded as a fantastic trick?
Several analysts say Do Kwon was too delusory to accept what he accomplished. Even if everything is shattered, it remains the same despite the fact that Luna has deteriorated to the point where it is almost useless. Do Kwon, on the other hand, refuses to accept his own faults. He is still looking for funds to invest further in his yacht. But this hole has existed since Luna’s inception.
The journey to hide from the international wanted
Do Kwon accepted an interview with Zack, the principal of Coinage, in Singapore on August 16, 2022. This is Do Kwon’s first public appearance since the Luna incident. Do Kwon remarked in the interview that he does not believe the Luna and UST episodes pose moral difficulties. Kwon said that his optimism was warranted at the time since the commercial success of his Terra ecosystem was approaching $100 billion.
On September 14, 2022, the South Korean police officially issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, and Interpol issued a red notice, but he may not have been in Singapore at the time, and Do Kwon’s wanted journey officially began at this time, with the police searching for his traces and whereabouts in various countries. This implies that Do Kwon is now a global fugitive, wanted by authorities all over the world.
Do Kwon returned to Laura Shin’s podcast taping on October 18, 2022, which was also Kwon’s last public appearance. Laura Shin openly requested Do Kwon’s whereabouts during the interview, but Do Kwon refused to reveal it, claiming that he fled Singapore not because of the May accident but because his personal safety was endangered, with reporters and other individuals breaking into his apartment building. Do Kwon’s most crucial revelation is that the organization is collaborating with a chain analysis business to create a study on their trade operations.
Those close to the situation revealed in December 2022 that Do Kwon, Terra’s creator, was hiding in Serbia. As a result, the South Korean Ministry of Justice approached the Serbian authorities to collaborate in researching if Do Kwon had special aides in Serbia. Do Kwon was discovered after entering Serbia, and his on-chain wallet data was enormous. On November 8, he moved 9.64 BTC from the LFG wallet to the Binance wallet, which was valued roughly $190,000 at the time, and traded Bitcoin for US dollars.
In early February 2023, prosecutors and Justice Ministry officials from South Korea flew to Serbia to seek assistance in apprehending Terra founder Do Kwon. The Seoul Public Prosecutor’s Office verified the news, but neither the prosecutor’s office nor the Ministry of Justice would comment on Do Kwon’s precise whereabouts.
On February 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Singapore-based Terraform Labs PTE Ltd and Do Hyeong Kwon in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing them of planning billions of dollars in encrypted asset securities. Fraud involving algorithmic stablecoins and other cryptoasset securities in violation of the Securities Act and Exchange Act’s registration and anti-fraud requirements.
On March 16, South Korean prosecutors strengthened their collaboration with foreign legal authorities and colleagues in order to aid in the arrest and extradition of South Korean citizen Do Kwon.
On March 23, Montenegro Interior Minister Filip Adzic announced that Montenegro police had detained Do Kwon, a South Korean citizen suspected of being one of the most wanted criminals. He is the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, headquartered in Singapore.
Subsequently, the South Korean National Police Agency announced on the 23rd that the person presumed to be CEO Do Kwon and an assistant named Han were arrested by the Montenegrin authorities and are currently being identified.
The end of the crypto tycoon
It can be said that Do Kwon’s efforts are very commendable (here referring to his process of outlawing for the past 10 months). However, everything has to come to an end.
The subsequent crypto purge also attracted the name of Sam Bankman-Fried, once one of the crypto billionaires but also because of his greedy behavior with serious consequences.
It takes people like that to be removed for the crypto market to thrive.
DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.
Join us to keep track of news: https://linktr.ee/coincu
Harold
Coincu News