South Korean Sleuths Indict Terra Co-Founder, Uncovering Do Kwon’s $8.6M Nest Egg

• TerraForm Labs co-founder Daniel Shin is charged with fraud by South Korean law.
• The lawsuit tackles nine other Terra investors who breached capital markets law.
• The criminal case revolves around the malfunctioned stablecoin UST and LUNA.

The South Korean special task force made a breakthrough in the controversial case of one of crypto’s worst financial disasters. Authorities claim that the entire ecosystem of Terra Luna, including the algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD (UST) and Terra Luna (LUNA), was fabricated from the start.

According to the leaked court documents, Do Kwon, Daniel Shin, and eight other co-founders caused “astronomical damage” to the investors by deliberately keeping the holders in the dark about the actual situation.

While Shin was left alone after the December court hearing, the defendant’s argument of a minor flight risk might have won him some time. However, the crypto entrepreneur was still eventually indicted.

Sleuths Find 10,000 Bitcoins in Kwon’s Secret Stash

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission discovered that Do Kwon was secretly holding a hefty sum of 10,000 Bitcoins transferred into various external wallets in a couple of months amid the crash.

The Swiss bank Sygnum is a digital asset bank that has its roots in Singapore but is headquartered in Switzerland. According to a recent report by the SEC, Sygnum allegedly maintained a business relationship with the crypto fugitive Do Kwon.

On top of that, the SEC points out that Do Kwon converted the Bitcoins into fiat and transferred over $100 million to an escrow account to an international law team. While these funds were spent, there’s also another $185 million in crypto assets already frozen by prosecutors.

While a large chunk of the rest of the converted Bitcoins was used to cover staff salaries, the detectives also revealed that there’s still $8.6 million kept in Do Kwon’s Swiss nest egg.