Terra's Do Kwon Denies Reports That Authorities Froze $39.6M of His Crypto

By Stacy Elliott

TerraForm Labs CEO Do Kwon denied reports that South Korean prosecutors have frozen another $39.6 million worth of his crypto assets after it was reported by Korean outlet News1. 

“Once again, I don’t even use KuCoin and OkEx, have no time to trade, no funds have been frozen,” he wrote. “I don’t know whose funds they’ve frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good.”

His mention of crypto exchanges OKX and KuCoin was in reference to a report from last month that the companies had cooperated with authorities to freeze 3,313 Bitcoin, worth roughly $66 million at the time of writing.

But Kwon and Luna Foundation Guard, the nonprofit created to support the Terra ecosystem, have denied those reports as well. 

A week ago, Kwon was on Twitter saying he had not taken funds belonging to his company and no funds from TerraForm Labs or Luna Foundation Guard had been frozen. At the time, the International Criminal Police Organization, more commonly known as Interpol, had issued a red notice for his arrest. 

South Korean prosecutors told Bloomberg that the notice means law enforcement agencies are now obligated to cooperate in locating and arresting Kwon.

For at least a month, he has been simultaneously denying that he's on the run and refusing to reveal his identity through his Twitter account, claiming that he and his company "are in full cooperation and we don't have anything to hide."

A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for the Terra founder on September 15, accusing him of violating capital market rules. The warrant also targets five other Sinapore residents in connection with the May collapse of Terraform Labs' algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD, which wiped out $40 billion.

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