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Here’s Why These Terra Case Witnesses Are About To Face Prison-Time

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Kim Seo-Joon, a significant witness called to testify in the Terra parliamentary inquiry, did not appear, citing “extreme stress,” according to the local South Korean news outlet Korea Economic Daily. Seo-Joon is the CEO of the venture capital firm Hashed and a pioneering investor in Terra (LUNC, formerly LUNA). Seo-Joon stated “extreme stress” as a justification for missing the investigation.

According to the news report, Seo-Joon is one of the six individuals chosen to take part in the Terra collapse investigation by the South Korean parliament. The South Korean government is attempting to comprehend what transpired to cause the LUNA and UST currencies to lose $40 billion.

To explain his absence, Seo-Joon wrote a letter to the national assembly. He claimed that he had a significant mental collapse after the sudden demise of LUNC (formerly LUNA) and the de-pegging of its related algorithmic stablecoin TerraClassicUSD (USTC). He declared,

“I have been suffering from anxiety disorder and panic disorder due to extreme mental stress.”

Seo-Joon also sent a professional evaluation and a medical certificate confirming that he had been hospitalized since July 29 and was undergoing therapy from a psychiatrist along with his letter. Seo-Joon is “in desperate need of emotional stability at this moment,” in the professional’s opinion, and it was claimed that both medicine and counseling treatment made his anxiousness worse.

Seo-Joon claimed that Hashed had lost $3.6 billion from its peak value in late April in an interview with Bloomberg in August. The company held 30 million LUNC (at the time, LUNA) tokens.

Fate Of The Other Witness In Terra Case

Seo-Joon is not the first witness to cancel on the investigation. On October 6, the parliamentary session was also missed by Lee Jung-hoon, the chairman of the South Korean exchange Bithumb. According to Jung-hoon, his panic issue prevented him from attending the investigation. And if that weren’t enough, Jung-hoon is currently facing a maximum sentence of 8 years in jail for a $70 million scam.

Other witnesses who have provided testimony throughout the Terra investigation include Kang Jong-hyun, a significant Bithumb shareholder, CEO of Dunamu, the organisation that runs UpBit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Lee Seok-woo, Chai Holdco Director Shin Hyun-sung, and Terraform Labs Co-Founder Daniel Shin.

Do Kwon, the chief of Terra, is not on the assembly’s list of people to question. However, international law enforcement agencies keep looking for the now-famous creator.

Terra’s Do Kwon Has Reportedly Left for Dubai

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Terra’s Do Kwon seems to be in a wave of trouble. Forkast verified with South Korean prosecutors that Kwon Do-Hyung, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs Pte Ltd., also known as Do Kwon, departed Singapore last month and arrived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Given that there are no records of Kwon entering the UAE through the airport, an investigation team is assessing the probability that Kwon had a layover in Dubai. Local law enforcement agencies have asked neighboring nations to assist in locating Kwon.

Terra Do Kwon’s whereabouts were a secret

Since the Terra-LUNA accident in May, Kwon’s precise location has remained a mystery. Many people theorized that he was in Singapore because that city-state was Kwon’s last known location.

“It’s not in the interest of being on the run. It’s just that every time the location where I live becomes known, it becomes almost impossible for me to live there.” 

Kwon said during a recent interview 

Following the collapse of the Terra stablecoin and cryptocurrency, which destroyed more than US$60 billion in market value, South Korea is looking into Kwon and Terraform Labs colleagues on a number of counts, including fraud and violating the Capital Markets Act.

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Terra’s Do Kwon Has Reportedly Left for Dubai 2

The investigation’s lead office, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, has filed an arrest order, is working to invalidate Kwon’s passport, and has asked Interpol to put a “red notice” on him.

A red notice requests that international law enforcement find and temporarily detain a person.

Author and cryptocurrency journalist Laura Shin discussed the entire Do Kwon affair on Twitter. Shin voiced her worry and displeasure with the retail investors who were looking for Do Kwon’s secret location.

She also agreed with Kwon’s choice to keep his location a secret. Shin also discussed the claims that Kwon was engaging in fraud.

A Terra whistleblower named Fatman, who is most known for sharing his unbiased feedback on many projects, has something to say. He shared his Twitter thread with Shin, highlighting the significant turning points in Terra’s conspiracy journey.

Do Kown asserted yesterday that Luna Foundation Gaurd (LFG) had contracted with an on-chain analysis business to release a report. Do Kwon said the impending study will shed light on all LFG trade to demonstrate there had been no money misappropriation or theft.

Do Kwon Apologizes To Terra Investors In A Rare Interview

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Do Kwon, the founder of Terra, made a long-awaited appearance in an exclusive interview on October 18 with renowned author and crypto journalist Laura Shin.

Since the Terra Blowout in May this year, Shin, host of the Unchained podcasts, has posed some challenging questions to the evasive founder.

The stablecoin UST and crypto asset LUNA of the Terra Ecosystem collapsed in a matter of days, wiping out the savings of countless people on May 12.

Do Kwon was first questioned about the Red Notice that Interpol had issued calling for his arrest. In response, Kwon said he was waiting for confirmation and refuted having obtained a copy of the arrest warrant.

He expressed his dissatisfaction with the Financial Services Commission of South Korea, for “creating new regulations through criminal enforcement proceedings.”

Calling the charges “illegitimate and politically motivated,” Do Kwon said he is complying with all the document requests made by the South Korean prosecutors.

He then mentioned how he had to deal with one of the worst effects of the collapse: investors losing billions of dollars across the globe. On one occasion, Shin asked Kwon how he felt about the suicide of an investor who lost his life savings, Kwon looked upset and expressed remorse.

I own up to the responsibility fully. It’s not easy — the hardest thing about the current situation is having to contend with so much astronomical loss. It’s quite hard to put into words, but the scale of the financial and emotional and economic damage that happened here is not easy to live.

The terra founder brushed aside reports of cashing out just before the event, calling them “too much misinformation”.

When Shin confronted him with on-chain evidence of 65 million worth of BTC being deposited on KuCoin and OKEx, Kwon retorted that transferring Bitcoin does not always imply selling on spot exchanges and that his auditing firm would soon come out with a report on the same.

Do Kwon Comes Clean On His “Cocky Attitude”

Do Kwon was also accused of having a “cocky attitude” which became notorious during his time on social media. He said he got “carried away with crypto Twitter” and “looking back now it seemed cringe”. But refuse to delete his controversial tweets or posts.

He further appealed to developers to learn from their errors while continuing to work on developing decentralized money that is “more robust, more transparent, and resistant to failure” in addition to being censorship-resistant.

Blockwater Technologies Fails To Make $3.4 Million DeFi Loan

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Blockwater Technologies, a South Korean blockchain investment company, missed payments on a loan from TrueFi, a decentralized lending platform, according to a statement released by TrueFi on Sunday.

The declaration claims that TrueFi gave Blockwater a “notice of default” on October 6 after it defaulted on a $3.4 million loan in stablecoin (BUSD).

Given the complexity surrounding the sudden insolvency, the TrueFi credit group conducted a thorough out-of-court workout with the Blockwater principals, along with a loan amendment to raise the borrowing rate and extend maturity. However, it was ultimately decided that a prospective court-supervised administrative court action would result in a better outcome for stakeholders.

Blockwater’s default highlights the effect of the bear market

The bankruptcy of the firm appears to be the most recent illustration of the insolvency issue in the crypto sector.

Numerous well-known cryptocurrency companies, including the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), the cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, the digital asset broker Voyager Digital, and the operator of crypto-mining data centers Compute North, have filed for bankruptcy. This is due to the sharp decline in the market this year, which was made worse by the collapse of the Terra blockchain.

After TrueFi and Blockwater modified the loan and prolonged the payment period in August, Blockwater went into default on its obligations. After the restructuring attempts, Blockwater was able to pay off $654,000 of its outstanding debt; nonetheless, payments were eventually late. There is still approximately $3 million in debt.

TrueFi has so far made unsecured loans totaling more than $1.7 billion, successfully recovered repayments totaling around $1.5 billion across 136 loans, and generated interest payments to lenders in the amount of $34.34 million.

As of this writing, TrueFi is enabling 10 loans totaling almost $140 million in active lending. Given the continued demand from borrowers and backing from significant lenders, the TrueFi credit group feels that the loan book is still in good condition and has been aggressively seeking loan renewals.

“With a traditional and rigorous approach to underwriting, TrueFi’s loan book remains healthy and active across both crypto-native and real-world lending.”

According to the statement, TrueFi and Blockwater are still in “active communication” and Blockwater’s bankruptcy has no impact on the protocol’s other loan pools.

Terra’s Do Kwon at the Risk of Losing His Passport

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Do Kwon and Terra have been the most talked-about subjects in the cryptocurrency sector since May. The sad failure of the billion-dollar company was one of the main incidents in the crypto industry.

Investors lost millions of dollars due to this catastrophic fall. On the market as a whole, the same had a variety of consequences.

It was recently revealed that the South Korean government had obtained a warrant for Do Kwon, suggesting their intention to put the Terra developer in prison.

There were rumors that Do Kwon was attempting to elude the authorities. He addressed these claims on Twitter and reaffirmed that he and his staff are completely compliant with the authorities. In one of the recent reports by Bloomberg, Do Kwon is likely to lose his passport.

South Korea to snatch Do Kwon’s passport

Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs Pte, may soon lose his passport, increasing pressure on him to return to South Korea and face charges related to a $60 billion cryptocurrency crisis.

The passport will be withdrawn in around 14 days if the 31-year-old does not return it, claims a government notification published on Wednesday. Kwon is the subject of an Interpol red alert, and his whereabouts are unknown.

The TerraUSD stablecoin, which was created by Kwon, was intended to have a fixed $1 value in a convoluted relationship with sister currency Luna. The duo collapsed in May, aggravating a $2 trillion cryptocurrency crash, driving a number of digital asset corporations into insolvency, and alarming authorities across the world.

He and five other people are charged with breaking the capital markets legislation in South Korea. The allegations were disputed by Terraform Labs, who said that the matter had become “very political.”

Prosecutors in Seoul have reportedly frozen an additional 56.2 billion won ($40 million) in assets they say belong to Kwon, raising the total to roughly 95 billion won, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

“I don’t know whose funds they’ve frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good,” Kwon said on Twitter. The year has proven to be extremely difficult for Do Kwon with the fall of his empire and the issues that followed.

Terra: Do Kwon’s Associate Listed As A Witness Before Audit Committee

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Terra’s co-founder and developer Daniel Shin along with representatives of the digital asset industry would bear witness before South Korea’s financial audit committee in the upcoming annual state audit, local sources reported.

According to reports, witnesses for a three-week parliamentary audit beginning on October 4 will include Tchai Holdco general manager Shin Hyun-Seung, DSRV Labs CEO Kim Ji-Yoon, Bithumb Chairman Lee Jeong-hoon, and Dunamu CEO Lee Sirgoo.

“We are internally assessing how to prepare”, an industry official told the newspaper.

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Terra: Do Kwon's Associate Listed As A Witness Before Audit Committee 4

Kwon and Shin founded Terraform Labs in 2018 with the goal of competing with PayPal and other industry giants. Later that year, the two raised $32 million, and in 2019, an ICO raised $62 million.

In March 2020, Shin took a step back from his ownership of Terraform Labs and resigned as CEO in order to focus on his other venture Chai. Do Kwon, the other co-founder, then assumed leadership of the company.

According to a Bloomberg article quoting local media, after Terra’s fallout, Shin’s home in Seoul was searched for potential illicit behavior. Investigators reportedly also went to the Chai office, a mobile payment app Shin founded in 2019.

The raids were a part of the investigation on claims that Kwon purposefully brought TerraUSD to its demise.

In order to estimate the extent of investor losses, a team of South Korean detectives also went to the offices of seven local cryptocurrency exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone, and seized transaction records and other data.

Terra’s “Wanted Man” Deny Rumours Of Cashing Out

Shin’s colleague and partner Do Kwon is currently a wanted man by Interpol who allegedly tried to transfer several millions worth of BTC across exchanges. Upon discovery, prosecutors have frozen transactions on the suspicion of money laundering and concealment. 

After a South Korean court issued an arrest order for Do Kwon, he denied attempting to pay out the millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin. Kwon criticized media organizations for disseminating “misinformation” about him in a recent tweet.

Kwon and five other Terraform Labs affiliates are charged with breaking the country’s capital markets law by South Korean authorities. Kwon is also accused of other offenses that the prosecution has not yet made public.

Binance proves to be more dutiful towards executing rules

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The year 2022 was challenging for the entire crypto industry. Numerous businesses and exchanges have collapsed during a protracted bear market, yet Binance has managed to stay afloat. Since it was founded, Binance has developed a name for itself in the cryptocurrency sector. One of the most popular and well-known bitcoin exchanges now uses the platform. Due to its user-friendly platform and reasonably low costs, CZ’s exchange is appealing to everyone.

The number of scams and exploits linked to cryptocurrencies increased along with its popularity. The number of individuals trying to take advantage of this chance and profit from even the smallest security flaw in the cryptocurrency industry is growing.

Binance introduces a global law enforcement training program in an effort to control the exploiters and perhaps apprehend the offenders.

Officials globally to assist Binance in a new endeavor

Over the past 12 months, Binance’s research team has significantly expanded. The present scheme will help lawmakers more in their efforts to seize and prosecute exploiters of digital assets.

Law enforcement representatives from nations like Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden, South Korea, and the UK have worked with the Binance Investigations team. Over the previous year, these countries have participated in over 30 workshops on combatting financial and cybercrime. The blog post stated,

“As more regulators, public law enforcement agencies, and private sector stakeholders look closely at crypto, we are seeing an increased demand for training to help educate on and combat crypto crimes,” Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s Global Intelligence, and Investigations head.

According to Gambaryan, the team has been working and training more closely with international regulators.

The investigative team of Binance will send experts and top practitioners to the program. The one-day training course will help the participants receive a personalized explanation of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

There will also be a talk about the firm’s investigative techniques and anti-money laundering policies. The effort would help international regulators to educate themselves and help them find offenders using digital assets.

Terra: Authorities Freeze “Suspicious” Transactions Worth $67M related to Do Kwon

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Terra’s CEO Kwon Do-Hyung a.k.a Do Kwon who has an arrest warrant is now at the receiving end of the authorities. As per local sources, South Korean prosecutors have frozen 3,313 BTC that was suddenly transferred to two overseas digital asset exchanges.

As of 1 pm on September 27th, there had been a significant quantity of Bitcoin transferred, about 95 billion won [around 66.59 million USD].

The Luna Foundation Guard [LFG] wallet was unexpectedly formed on September 15th on Binance, according to on-chain data provider CryptoQuant. 3313 BTC were sent to the wallets of Kucoin and OKX.

LFG is a nonprofit organization that CEO Kwon founded in January to defend the price of LUNA among other things.

The transfer was quickly discovered by the merger team, who then requested that Kucoin freeze the transferred 1354 BTC. Meanwhile, OKX is allegedly disregarding the prosecution’s plea to freeze assets,

The 1959 BTC that was transferred here may have migrated to another exchange as a result, authorities alleged.

The Securities Crimes Joint Investigation Team and the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office have been conducting a thorough investigation since mid-May when the prosecution requested that Kwon’s assets be frozen, the local sources reported.

Officials To Investigate If The Terra Founder Used It As An Evacuation Fund

The circumstances of the transfer, including the potential use of the transferred BTC for money laundering, concealing, and espionage, are reportedly being extensively examined by prosecutors.

A former prosecution official said,

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.

The International Criminal Police Organization [Interpol] is said to have issued a red alert for the co-founder of Terraform Labs only a few weeks after South Korean authorities issued an arrest order for Do Kwon and his friends.

As reported by TronWeekly, South Korean prosecutors accuse Kwon and five other Terraform Labs affiliates of violating the country’s capital markets law. Kwon also faces additional charges that prosecutors have not divulged.

Kwon refuted charges of hiding in a September 17 tweet and stated that he was willing to work with “any government agency that has shown interest to communicate.”

Terra’s Do Kwon Assures That He Is Not Making Any Efforts To Hide

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Since May, Do Kwon and Terra have been the crypto industry’s most popular topics. One of the major events in the cryptocurrency world was the tragic collapse of the billion-dollar business.

Millions were lost by investors during a difficult period. The same has a variety of effects on the market as a whole.

Recently, it was reported that South Korean authorities had secured a warrant for Do Kwon, indicating their plan to imprison the creator of Terra.

Rumors were out that Do Kwon was trying to run from the officials. He took to Twitter to address these rumors and assured that he and his team are fully compliant with the officials.

Do Kwon says he ain’t trying to hide

Do Kwon, a co-founder of Terraform Labs and the subject of South Korean allegations related to a $60 billion Bitcoin wipeout, refuted reports that he was hiding after Interpol issued a red alert for his arrest.

On Monday, Kwon tweeted that he was “making zero effort to hide,” adding that he “goes on walks and malls.” Interpol has asked law enforcement agencies worldwide to find and detain the missing 31-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur, according to prosecutors in Seoul.

Kwon and five other people have been charged with offenses, including breaking the legislation governing financial markets.

Kwon earlier this year relocated from South Korea to Singapore, where his now-defunct Terraform Labs enterprise had a presence. However, it is unknown where he is now after the city-state announced on September 17 that he had left. The search for him was thereafter intensified by the prosecution.

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Terra’s Do Kwon Assures That He Is Not Making Any Efforts To Hide 6

Kwon was active on social media while potentially facing arrest and punishment in South Korea. At the time of publishing, he listed Singapore as his location on Twitter, but a Reuters article on September 17 indicated he may no longer be there.

The co-founder of Terra is from South Korea. Although there are certain exceptions, dual citizenship is typically not accepted in South Korea. It is unknown if Kwon has passports from multiple nations.

The algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and its sibling cryptocurrency Luna was created by Terraform Labs. In May, both currencies crashed, causing significant losses in the cryptocurrency markets and escalating governmental monitoring of digital assets.

LUNC’s Trading Volume Explodes Over 150%; Here’s Why

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After a week of dull price action, LUNC soared by 25% in an hour and registered a hike of over 150% in trading volumes. The current price index also looked optimistic, as the token is trading at $0.0003, rising by 36% in 24 hours.

For the unversed, trading volume demonstrates the amount of intra-exchange trading and in this case, the surge has been attributed to increases in token sales across exchanges.

Anxious investors are still exercising caution since the Terra ecosystem collapse, which wiped out the market prices of TerraUSD [UST] and LUNA tokens.

traders continue treading carefully despite assurances from embattled Co-founder Do Kwon, that crypto exchanges and the community are working together to determine the best path for a sustainable price recovery.

Recently, the CEO of top crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, suggested a flat 1.2% trading fee on LUNC trades that may be burned to reduce the token’s total supply and enhance its price performance. Speaking about the initiative, CZ stated,

“We will implement an opt-in button [on the Binance exchange], for people to opt-in to pay a 1.2% tax for their LUNC trading.”

To ensure that early adopters “are not the only people paying an extra 1.2%,” the exchange would start taxing opt-in traders after receiving approval from 25% of LUNC investors.

LUNC Burning Proposal Caused Furore

Only if opt-in traders reach 50% of the total volume of LUNC trading on the exchange will a blanket trading fee of 1.2% be applied to all LUNC transactions.

The recommendation caused a rift in the LUNA community because while some people backed CZ’s implementation of the opt-in button, others saw it as market manipulation by a single organization.

CZ supported LUNC burning but called for a community vote, letting traders on the platform approve the proposal, saying, “We listen to and defend our users.”

The top exec said that he is aware that LUNC traders would prefer to transfer assets to other exchanges without the burn unless the modification is made across all exchanges and on-chain.

On the other hand, South Korean law enforcement is attempting to locate and detain Kwon for the Terra collapse.

Kwon and five other people were the subjects of an arrest warrant issued on September 14 by a court in Seoul, South Korea, for allegedly breaking the nation’s capital markets law.