Do Kwon denies attempts to withdraw $66m in BTC before arrest warrant was issued
On-the-run Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has denied he attempted to cash out $66 million of Bitcoin days before an arrest warrant was issued for him earlier this month.
Speaking on Twitter, the 31-year-old said he hadn’t used exchanges Kucoin or OKex in over a year.
“What has been probably the most surprising in all this is the amount of misinformation that gets spread,” he tweeted.
Prosecutors in South Korea requested the two crypto platforms froze 3,313 Bitcoin believed to be associated with Do Kwon, claiming there had been an attempt to transfer the funds prior to issuing a warrant for his arrest.
Do Kwon is wanted in connection with the collapse of Terraform and the subsequent fall in value of its Luna and Terra USD stablecoins. Prior to their collapse, both tokens had a combined value of more than $60 billion. In May, they became almost worthless and, in the eyes of many analysts, lit the fuse on a wider cryptocurrency crash which has still not recovered.
Seoul’s central court issued a warrant for Do Kwon on September 14, together with five other Terra employees. The arrest documents listed a series of allegations pertaining to violations of South Korea’s capital markets law.
Since not responding to the warrants, and now understood to have left Singapore where they were issued, South Koren authorities alerted international crime agency Interpol.
The Lyon-based organisation this week issued a ‘red notice’, thereby declaring Do Kwon a wanted fugitive and triggering a gobal pursuit,