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Benzinga
Benzinga
Business
Murtuza Merchant

Terra CEO Do Kwon Denies Reports Of Frozen Bitcoin

The beleaguered TerraForm Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyung, also known as Do Kwon, denied reports on Wednesday that South Korean prosecutors have frozen Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) assets worth 56.2 billion won ($39.6 million) of Terra Luna Foundation.

South Korea's News1 reported that on Sept. 27 the Joint Financial Securities Crime Investigation Team of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors froze 56.2 billion won. This is in addition to the previously frozen 38.8 billion won of the 95 billion won in assets Kwon had sought to allegedly hide.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: KuCoin Open To Cooperating With South Korea To Freeze Bitcoin In Do Kwon Fiasco, Says CEO

Do Kwon Denies Reports

In response, Kwon said he had no time to trade and that no funds have been frozen.

"I don't get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood — muscle flexing? But to what end?" Kwon said. "Once again, I don't even use Kucoin and OkEx, have no time to trade, no funds have been frozen. I don't know whose funds they've frozen, but good for them, hope they use it for good."

His mention of the cryptocurrency exchanges OKX and KuCoin was related to reports from last month that the exchanges had worked with law enforcement to freeze 3,313 Bitcoin, valued at around $66 million.

Those allegations have also been refuted by Kwon and Luna Foundation Guard, a nonprofit organization established to support the Terra ecosystem.

Kwon claimed a week ago on Twitter he had not stolen any money from his business and that neither TerraForm Labs nor Luna Foundation Guard had frozen any money.

Interpol Issues Notice For Do Kwon

Interpol had already issued a red notice for his arrest.

According to South Korean prosecutors, the notice required law enforcement to work with one another to find and apprehend Kwon.

Kwon had been simultaneously disputing he was on the run and denied his identity through his Twitter account for at least a month.

Kwon said his firm and himself were cooperating with authorities and had nothing to conceal.

South Korean Authorities Gunning For Do Kwon’s Arrest

On Sept. 15, a South Korean court issued an arrest order for the Terra founder, charging him with breaking capital market regulations.

In connection with the May collapse of Terraform Labs' algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD, which destroyed $40 billion, the warrant also targeted five other Singapore citizens.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Yuga Labs Co-Founder Greg Solano, AKA Gargamel, Is Coming To Benzinga's Future Of Crypto Event: Here Are The Details

Photo: breakermaximus via Shutterstock

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