South Korea kicked off the first court trial for Terra co-accused Daniel Shin, along with seven additional former employees of the collapsed crypto project. Shin chose not to appear as it was a preliminary hearing, according to an email statement.
The former co-founder was recently charged by South Korean prosecutors with several offenses related to his work with Terra-Luna, including violations of the Capital Markets Act, breach of duty, and embezzlement. He and nine other Terraform Labs members were accused of defrauding investors by marketing the Terra stablecoin as a payment method despite being aware that such services were illegal.
In the earlier Bloomberg report, Seoul authorities have frozen assets worth roughly 246 billion won [$184 million] reportedly belonging to Shin and nine others. The article said that the property freeze procedure, which included foreclosing on apartments and foreign cars owned by former CEOs and others, represented the first step in recovering the proceeds of crime.
All of the accused were actively involved with the cryptocurrency initiatives such as handling marketing, system development, and management, according to South Korean authorities. On the other hand, Kim Ki-dong, Shin’s attorney, refuted all of the charges in a statement.
Shin has nothing to do with the Terra, Luna collapse as he left the [company] two years before the fallout. He voluntarily returned to South Korea immediately after the collapse and has been faithfully cooperating with the probe for over 10 months, hoping to contribute to fact-finding.
Meanwhile, Shin’s partner and prime accused, Do Kwon, is currently serving a four-month sentence after being found guilty of forging documents by a Montenegrin court. Authorities in the Balkan nation detained Kwon and another Terra executive, Han Chang-Joon, in March for allegedly possessing forged passports.
Terra Founder Do Kwon’s Extradition To South Korea Is Being Considered
Since the arrest, the duo has remained in custody, even though local courts granted them bail earlier after a second attempt. Additionally, South Korean and American investigators have asked for his extradition in order to bring criminal charges against him in connection with the May 2022 failure of the multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency firm Terra.
Till then, Kwon will continue to be held in “extradition custody” for six months while the South Korean government’s request for one is being reviewed, a High Court in Podgorica stated.