Wanted Terra founder Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro

According to official information, one of the world’s most wanted suspected white-collar criminals has been arrested in Montenegro. Montenegrin police arrested the fugitive cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon “with forged documents” arrested at the airport in Podgorica, Interior Minister Filip Adzic said on Twitter on Thursday. The fugitive allegedly had one fake Costa Rican passport and a fake Belgian passport and fake Hawaiian driver’s license.

$40 billion destroyed

The collapse of his startup Terraform Labs wiped out around $40 billion in investor capital last year and rocked global crypto markets. With the arrest of 31-year-old Do Kwon one of the most wanted suspected crypto scammers in police custody. Do Kwon was the CEO and co-founder of a startup called Terraform Labs based in Singapore, which handles cryptocurrencies Terra USD and the sister currency Luna issued. Both imploded in May 2022, Terraform Labs went bust and Do Kwon broke away.

5 more people wanted

South Korea called Interpol in September to put Kwon on a global wanted list in 195 Interpol member states. He and 5 others are wanted in connection with the Terraform Labs bankruptcy. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accuses the South Korean of “a multi-billion dollar scam” before.

Terraform Labs offered TerraUSD as so-called “StablecoinsStablecoins are actually pegged to stable assets like the dollar to prevent drastic price swings. However, TerraUSD was tied to freely tradable sister currency Luna via a different mechanism common to some stablecoins.

Strong urge for more control

In May last year Both currencies fell into the abyss below the one dollar mark and wiped out the savings of investors. The South Korean government then initiated investigations into the crash and had the meanwhile fugitive Do Kwon listed as an international wanted man.

Cryptocurrencies are on the rise after a series of controversies and scandals targeted by the regulators advised all over the world. Most recently, the bankruptcy of Crypto exchange FTX and its sister company Alameda Research late last year for headlines. With the collapse of the two companies, a virtual trading deal with an estimated market value of $32 billion vanished into thin air.

Bank failures increase pressure

The fall of FTX as well as the demise of the two big crypto lenders Silvergate and Signature in the US amid a series of bank failures has raised enormous doubts about the long-term viability of cryptocurrencies and pressured other platforms that build on the success of Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

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