Do Kwon denies cashout allegations

Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. founder and chief executive officer Kwon Do-hyung, otherwise known as Do Kwon, has denied his involvement in the alleged movement of funds from the Luna Foundation Guard Ltd. to crypto exchanges OKX and KuCoin.

“There is no “cashout” as alleged, I haven’t used Kucoin or OKex in at least the last year, and no funds of TFL (Terraform Labs), LFG (Luna Foundation Guard) or any other entities have been frozen,” Kwon said on his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday.

Among other mandates, Singapore-based Luna Foundation Guard was primarily tasked with providing a further layer of support to protect the dollar peg of Terraform’s now-defunct stablecoin.

Earlier this week, South Korean prosecutors asked global crypto exchanges KuCoin and OKX to freeze Bitcoin after about 3,313 BTC was reportedly moved from wallet addresses belonging to LFG to these exchanges between Sept. 15 to 18. KuCoin and OKX have frozen 1,354 BTC and 1,959 BTC associated with Kwon, prosecutor Choi Sung-kook in the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office told Forkast.  

The suspension of assets associated with Terraform and Kwon is part of South Korea’s ongoing investigation on Terra-LUNA that started in May.

Back in May this year, Terraform’s algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD Classic (formerly TerraUSD) and sister cryptocurrency Luna Classic (formerly LUNA) collapsed, wiping out an estimated US$40 billion in investor wealth. 

South Korean investors filed a lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its executives for fraud charges following the collapse, which prompted the investigation. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office that oversees the case issued an arrest warrant on Kwon and his affiliates on Sept. 14 and requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cancel their passports. 

The prosecutors also asked the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to send out a ‘Red Notice’ which asks law enforcement globally to locate and provisionally arrest an individual. Prosecutor Choi confirmed with Forkast on Monday that such a notice has been issued.

Despite having the police looking for him in 195 member countries of the Interpol with an exact location still unknown, Kwon Tuesday said he is not in hiding.

“I’m making zero efforts to hide. I go on walks and malls, no way none of CT (crypto Twitter) hasn’t run into me the past couple weeks,” Kwon said via Twitter. Kwon also said that he hasn’t seen his name on Interpol’s ‘Red Notice’ list. The Interpol doesn’t always make public all its notices for operational reasons, according to its website accessed on Wednesday. 

To Kwon’s assertion, Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office’s Choi told Forkast that authorities believe Kwon is indeed on the run.

Kwon did not immediately reply to Forkast‘s request for comment.