South Korea adds Terraform Labs’ Daniel Shin to wish list
South Korean prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin, alleging he illegally profited before the collapse of its cryptocurrency luna and stablecoin terraUSD in May.
Warrants were also made for three other Terraform Labs investors and four engineers, Yonhap News reports.
South Korea has led the criminal investigations into the firm’s demise, suspecting fraud and tax evasion on a mass scale. The tax records of chief exec Do Kwon and Shin were seized. In July, prosecutors raided the offices of several top local crypto exchanges as well as the homes and offices of related suspects, including Kwon and Shin.
In September, South Korea issued arrest warrants for Kwon, head of research Nicholas Platias, and several others. Curiously, Shin was not listed.
Shin left Terraform Labs in March 2020 to work on his fintech firm Chai Corporation. However, prosecutors suspect that Chai leaked customer information to Terraform Labs when it was launched in 2018, and misappropriated funds to promote its token.
Read more: Crypto exchange Upbit sued for delaying LUNA transfer while Terra crashed
Prosecutors further suspect that Shin sold $105 million of luna at an immense profit without telling investors. Shin refutes these claims and maintains that ties with Terraform Labs were severed when he left in 2020.
“I left [Terraform Labs] two years before the collapse of Terra and Luna, and have nothing to do with the collapse,” he said in a written statement. Shin further wrote that he regrets South Korea has issued an arrest warrant despite him cooperating with the investigation.
The whereabouts of Kwon remain unknown. South Korea asked Interpol to issue a red notice, which it agreed to in September. Law enforcement agencies across the globe have been urged to seek out and arrest Kwon.
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