South Korea upgrades wanted status of Terra founder Do Kwon, asks for red notice News ▸ South Korea ▸ Terra ▸ People
South Korea upgrades wanted status of Terra founder Do Kwon, asks for red notice
South Korean prosecutors have requested the cancellation of Kwon's South Korean passport because he was "on the run" and uncooperative.
2 min read
Updated: Sep. 19, 2022 at 7:51 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
South Korea has asked Interpol to issue a red alert notice for Terra’s founder Do Kwon, Financial Times reported on Sept 19.
According to the report, the South Korean prosecutors have requested the cancellation of Kwon’s South Korean passport because he was “on the run” and uncooperative.
The report stated that Kwon’s lawyer told prosecutors that he would not respond to the summons immediately.
South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Kwon on Sept 14.
Kwon closed Terraform Labs office in South Korea in April and relocated to Singapore around the same period. However, the Singapore Police revealed that Kwon was no longer in the country as of Sept 17.
The police force promised to assist South Korea in pursuing the Terra founder.
South Korean prosecutors reportedly said they are doing their best to locate him and have “begun the procedure to place him on the Interpol red notice list and revoke his passport.”
According to the Interpol website, a red notice is a global law enforcement request to “locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.”
The notice would place Kwon on the wanted list of 195 countries.
Do Kwon plays the victim, denies being on the run.
In a series of Sept 17 tweets, Do Kwon stated that he was not “on the run.” He also denied allegations that he was uncooperative, saying he has communicated with “any government agency that has shown interest to communicate.”
Dear CT – I will tell you what i am doing and where i am if:
1) we are friends
2) we have plans to meet
3) we are involved in a gps based web3 gameOtherwise you have no business knowing my gps coordinates
— Do Kwon 🌕 (@stablekwon) September 17, 2022
Kwon continued that those who should know his location are his friends, those he plans to meet, or those he plays in a GPS-based web3 game. In his view, any other interpretation of this would amount to an invasion of his privacy.
Meanwhile, Kwon also made a cryptic tweet, saying:
“One can tell a lot about a society by the way it raises its young and buries its dead.”
Crypto Twitter took exception to Do Kwon’s post, with users critiquing his approach to the current situation by which thousands of investors have lost their life savings in the collapse of Terra Luna.
The crypto community has interpreted this tweet to mean that the Terra founder is playing victim after the implosion of his company.
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Terra is a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to power price-stable global payments systems.
Terraform Labs
Terraform Labs is a startup that created Terra, a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins.
Do Kwon began his professional journey as an engineer, contributing to tech giants Apple and Microsoft.
