Switzerland seizes $26 million from Do Kwon
Switzerland seizes US$26 million from Do Kwon, his company Terraform Labs or senior employees. The funds were in Bitcoin and US dollars at the Swiss crypto bank Sygnum based in Zurich.
Switzerland seizes $26 million from Do Kwon
Switzerland confiscates the equivalent of $26 million from Terra founder Do Kwon, according to a report by Korean news magazine Digital Asset .
The funds were previously held in accounts at Swiss crypto bank Sygnum, which has made headlines several times over the past few months. The company has been thrust into the limelight as more and more competing crypto banks shut down. The company also gained notoriety because Do Kwon opened one or more accounts with the bank in the spring.
As early as April, Digital Asset reported that Kwon had transferred the equivalent of $100 million to Sygnum – both in the form of cryptocurrencies and fiat money. At least 26 million US dollars seem to have remained until the end.
Swiss authorities confiscated Bitcoin (BTC) and US dollars in this value. The 26 million US dollars are said to be owned by Do Kwon, his company Terraform Labs (TFL), its financial director Han Chang-joon or the head of the research department, Nicholas Platias. The confiscation followed at the request of US authorities.
Assets are unknown to South Korean authorities
The prosecution of Kwon and the company he runs began after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022. However, the assets invested in Switzerland are still unknown to the South Korean authorities.
Terraform Labs got its start in South Korea before relocating to Singapore. Both Terra founders Do Kwon and Daniel Shin are native South Koreans. Shin left Terraform Labs back in 2020, largely escaping the conflict.
South Korea suspected that Kwon only has access to around $13 million. Digital Asset suspects that the difference is caused by Bitcoin, which was previously unknown to the authorities.
The allegations also include the suspicion that Kwon embezzled funds from the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG). This invested large sums in BTC and wanted to become the largest holder of the cryptocurrency. Actually, the money should serve as a reserve of the cryptocurrency Terra.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also bases itself on this allegation. The Americans suspect that Kwon stole 10,000 Bitcoin and transferred it to Sygnum in Switzerland to enrich himself.
Terra founder Do Kwon: What’s next?
After the ongoing accusations for Terra founder Do Kwon, what’s next? The South Korean fled South Korea to Singapore last year, apparently out of concern for the consequences. From there he traveled to Dubai and Europe.
He was finally apprehended in Montenegro and recently sentenced to prison for entering the country with forged passports. After the short prison sentence, the programmer’s odyssey will continue. Both South Korea and the USA are demanding the extradition of the accused.
Kwon never did business in the United States. The North American state still wants to put him on trial because he cheated US citizens. He himself denies the allegations. Criticism was first voiced in May 2022 when the Terra ecosystem collapsed in a stampede.
More on the topic: Do Kwon: Montenegro imposes prison sentence on Terra founders
