Defunct Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has reportedly attempted to withdraw $69 million worth of Bitcoin shortly after an arrest warrant was issued in his name.
KuCoin And OKX Requested To Freeze Funds
According to South Korean prosecutors, Do Kwon attempted to siphon away around $69 million from the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) treasury shortly after the country’s law enforcement issued an arrest warrant for him on September 14. The LFG is a non-profit organization set up by Do Kwon to defend the price of LUNA (Terra).
The reports claim that on September 15, LFG created a Binance wallet. Soon after, 3313 BTCs were moved from LFG to wallets created in the Kucoin and OKX exchanges. Around 1354 BTCs of the transferred funds were sent to Kucoin over three consecutive days, followed by 1959 BTCs that were sent to OKX. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office has appealed to both the exchanges to freeze the funds. They have been investigating the matter jointly with the Securities Crimes Joint Investigation Team. While OKX has not responded to the request, KuCoin has agreed to comply and freeze the assets. However, since neither exchange is Korea-based, their full compliance in the matter can not be expected.
Prosecutors Closing In On Do Kwon
Addressing the matter, an official from the prosecutor’s office stated,
“In a normal criminal investigation, if a large amount of money is moved from the suspect’s account after the issuance of an arrest warrant, it is natural to conduct an intensive investigation with suspicion of laundering and concealment. We must first check whether it will be used as an evacuation fund.”
South Korean law enforcement has been closing in on Do Kwon ever since the depegging of the TerraUSD stablecoin resulted in a market-wide collapse and wiped out $40 billion worth of investor funds. Other than the arrest warrant, Do Kwon is also currently wanted by Interpol.
Do Kwon Responds
The allegations of moving funds incited a response from the Terraform Labs CEO, who has been mostly quiet on social media since the debacle. He denied the allegations and claimed he had not used the mentioned exchanges in the last year. Soon after the news broke that he had attempted to withdraw funds from the LFG account, Do Kwon tweeted,
“What has been probably the most surprising in all this is the amount of misinformation that gets spread. There is no “cashout” as alleged, I haven’t used kucoin or OKX in at least the last year, and no funds of TFL, LFG, or any other entities have been frozen.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
