South Korea Issues Arrest Warrant for Terra's Do Kwon

The South Korean Supreme Prosecutors Office issued an arrest warrant for Terra co-founder Do Kwon and five others associated with Terraform Labs this week. Do Kwon had been residing in Singapore, but on Saturday night the Singapore Police Force said Do Kwon is not in Singapore anymore. Hours later, Do Kwon claimed in a tweet that he is cooperating with authorities and is not “on the run.”

Do Kwon is accused of violating the Capital Markets Act during his time in charge of Terraform Labs. According to Choi Sung-kook of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, Do Kwon is also being investigated for fraud and is expected to face more charges soon.

South Korea Wants to See Do Kwon in Court

We wrote about Do Kwon’s legal troubles in May, and we assumed the South Korean police would do something about it. But it took over four months for South Korea to try to arrest Do Kwon after the May 2022 Terra/LUNA crash, despite the Terra ecosystem’s leadership and economic stability being questionable during its explosive growth in early 2022.

It took until today for the Korean prosecutors office to begin the multi-day process of canceling Do Kwon’s Korean passport.

The fallout from the Terra ecosystem took down CeFi lenders Celsius, Voyager Digital, BlockFi, Stablegains, and Hodlnaut, as well as hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, causing over $60B in economic damage.

Singapore Will Extradite Do Kwon

Do Kwon had been openly residing in Singapore, which has no extradition treaty with South Korea. In most cases, Singapore wouldn’t even have a clear way to back-channel Do Kwon's return to South Korea. But Do Kwon’s case is apparently special, and the Singapore Police Force has publicly stated it will assist the South Korean government in Do Kwon’s return.