The entire globe witnessed the decline of Terra and its assets. From UST losing its peg, all the way to Interpol issuing a red notice against the network’s founder Do Kwon, the ordeal has been chaotic. Now, it seems like there was another turn in the case with a huge amount of Bitcoin involved.
According to reports, ~3313 Bitcoins worth over $69 million were transferred from Luna Foundation Guard [LFG] to two crypto exchanges operating outside South Korea. This was reportedly carried out shortly after the arrest warrant for Kwon was issued on the 14th of September.
For the very first time since the ordeal, South Korean prosecutors managed to freeze some of the transferred Bitcoin. It was brought to light that the LFG abruptly created a wallet on Binance on the 15th of September. Soon after which 3313 BTC was transferred to both Kucoin and OKX wallets.
It was further revealed that through the LFG account on Binance, transactions worth 1354 Bitcoin were made to Kucoin for 3 consecutive days starting from 15 September. OKX garnered 1959 Bitcoin which is about $39 million.
Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office [Prosecutor Yang Seok-jo] and the Securities Crimes Joint Investigation Team [Director Dan Seong-han] have been overseeing the investigation. While these transactions surfaced, the team reached out to Kucoin and OKX urging them to freeze the funds.
While Kucoin decided to comply with the request, OKX reportedly ignored the same.
Is Do Kwon involved?
Kwon has time and again claimed that he wasn’t on the run and was even in touch with government officials. However, a former prosecutor thinks Kwon may have tried to use the enormous quantity of money as an evacuation fund. The official stated,
“In a normal criminal investigation, if a large amount of money is moved from the suspect’s account after the issuance of an arrest warrant, it is natural to conduct an intensive investigation with suspicion of laundering and concealment. We must first check whether it will be used as an evacuation fund.”
In addition to this, the prosecution is reportedly wary of escaping, laundering, or hiding following the arrest warrant. Furthermore, the prosecution is aware that Kwon is likely to deny association with the Bitcoin transferred. Yet, investigations as well as limiting Kwon’s funds were taking the front stage.
