Interpol Issues Red Notice For Terra’s Do Kwon

Tom Jowitt,
TerraUSD creator Do Kwon. Image credit: Terraform Labs

Do Kwon denies being on the run and says he is making “zero effort to hide,” after Interpol issues global arrest warrant

The legal troubles for Do Kwon, the co-founder of failed TerraUSD cryptocurrency, seem to be growing this week.

Earlier this month South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, four months after the spectacular collapse of Terra triggered a global crypto collapse.

Do Kwon had flown to Singapore (where Terraform Labs is registered) in May – before Terra crashed – but the Singapore Police Force say he is no longer there in the city-state.

Red notice

According to CNBC, South Korean prosecutors then asked Interpol to place him on the red notice list – which it has now apparently done.

They also reportedly asked the foreign ministry in Seoul to revoke his passport, saying that Do Kwon was “on the run.”

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office in South Korea’s capital city told CNBC that global law enforcement agency Interpol had issued a “Red Notice” for Kwon.

That said, his name doesn’t seem to be currently on the red notice list.

Red Notices are usually issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence.

It is essentially a request to law enforcement in 195 countries to locate and arrest the person on the red notice list.

This could then lead to an extradition.

Not on the run?

But Kwon has denied he is on the run, saying he is making “zero effort to hide” and goes on walks and to malls.

His last Twitter post was on 17 September, and he is has been silent since then.

His verified Twitter account sarcastically said at the time he hadn’t “gone running in a while” and needed to cut some calories.

In another post he said he would provide his GPS co-ordinates only on the following conditions.

Criminal investigation

Kwon has been compared to Elizabeth Holmes, found guilty in January of defrauding investors in her company Theranos.

It is estimated that nearly 250,000 people had invested in Terraform Labs’ coins.

Kwon says neither he nor his company made money on the crash.

It is known that South Korea’s Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team has been investigating Terraform Labs and the coins’ collapse.

In July, South Korean prosecutors reportedly raided the home of Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin.

And more than 1,600 investors have signed up for a class-action lawsuit against Kwon with two domestic law firms, LKB & Partners LLC and Kisung LLC.

Kwon has not exactly helped his cause. He is known for his caustic remarks about detractors, and told a YouTube crypto channel a week before the demise of TerraUSD, “95 percent [of coins] are going to die – but there’s also entertainment in watching companies die too.”

Just before the implosion he told followers on Twitter, “I love chaos.”

But on 13 May he tweeted, “I am heartbroken about the pain my invention has brought on all of you.”