The worldwide manhunt for Terraform Labs’ controversial founder and CEO Do Kwon continues to rage on, with South Korean authorities now believing he is in Serbia after leaving Singapore in September.
Based on a Dec. 11 report from Chosun Media, South Korean authorities adopted a tip-off regarding Do Kwon’s whereabouts suggesting he’s now in Serbia and has been in a position to verify it.
“Lately, we obtained intelligence that CEO Kwon was in Serbia, and it was discovered to be true,” an official informed the outlet.
The report additionally states that South Korea’s Ministry of Finance “is within the technique of requesting cooperation from the Serbian authorities” as a part of the investigation.
South Korean authorities have been on the hunt for Do Kwon since Terra’s collapse, however have not appeared to have had a lot luck pinpointing his location till now.
The 31-year-old was understood to have moved to Singapore towards the top of April, simply earlier than the Terra ecosystem’s shock collapse.
On Sept. 14, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Workplace’s Monetary and Securities Prison Unit issued an arrest warrant in opposition to Kwon for allegedly violating South Korean capital markets legal guidelines.
Round that point, authorities in Singapore confirmed that Kwon was now not within the nation, and was understood to have flown to Dubai in transit to a brand new unknown vacation spot.
Shortly after that, on Sept. 26, Interpol additionally reportedly issued a “Purple Discover” in opposition to Kwon. As of Dec. 11, nevertheless, Do Kwon would not seem to have been added to Interpol’s Purple Discover database on the web site.
On Oct. 6, South Korea’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs issued an order for Kwon to give up his passport. The ministry added that failure to conform would end result within the cancellation of his passport altogether.
Later that month, prosecutors in South Korea confirmed studies that Do Kwon had flown to Dubai for a attainable stopover earlier than heading to a different vacation spot — which, because it seems, might need been Serbia.
If Do Kwon seems to be in Serbia, it stays to be seen what, if any, authorized strings could be pulled from South Korea to attempt to extradite the Terraform Labs founder.
Whereas South Korea has entered right into a bilateral extradition treaty with 31 international locations, Serbia just isn’t amongst them. Nonetheless, South Korea has additionally entered into a wider multilateral extradition treaty with the Council of Europe, to which Serbia is a signatory.
Associated: Terra co-founder Do Kwon faces $57-million lawsuit in Singapore
Kwon has maintained that he’s not “on the run” and has been “making zero effort to cover.” He is continued to be energetic on social media over the previous few months.
The collapse of the Terra ecosystem in Might was partly triggered by the depegging of its algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD Traditional, USTC (previously UST), which in flip introduced down its sister asset Luna Traditional, LUNC (previously LUNA) by almost 100%.
Cointelegraph reached out to representatives for Terraform Labs for remark however didn’t obtain a direct response.
