Do Kwon: They arrest the “king of madmen” whom they accuse of causing the collapse of the cryptocurrency market with losses of US $ 40,000 million

After months of a manhunt, one of the world’s most wanted men has fallen.

South Korean police reported that Do Kwon, the alleged person responsible for the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrencies terra and luna, had some lose nearly US$40,000 millionwas arrested in Montenegro.

The news was shared by the Minister of the Interior of the Balkan country Filip Adzic, who announced this via his Twitter account. “one of the world’s most wanted fugitives” he had been detained at Podgorica airport.

Kwon is not only being asked by his country’s judiciarybut also by the American, who accuses him and his company Terraform Labs of “orchestrating a multi-million dollar fraud involving crypto assets”.

The company did not respond to BBC requests for comment on its CEO’s detention.

South Korean justice issued an arrest warrant for Kwon in September and asked Interpol for his arrest, alleging Terraform Labs had violated capital markets laws.

discovered and arrested

Seoul authorities believed the fugitive, who is barely over 30 years old, was in Serbia and so sent officials to Belgrade to negotiate, as both nations have no extradition treaty.

Police in Montenegro said Kwon took fake Costa Rican and Belgian passports from his luggage during the arrest, Reuters reported.

Kwon had denied that he was on the run. This, even though he never revealed his whereabouts.

Montenegrin authorities claimed that he was traveling under a false name and false documents. However, by comparing his fingerprints, his true identity was found.

In the United States, Kwon is being charged with securities and wire fraud, and conspiracyamong other crimes, according to an indictment made public Thursday in Manhattan (New York) court.

U.S. authorities charged Kwon and Terraform Labs with “failing to provide full, fair, and truthful disclosure to the public as required for a large number of crypto assets, particularly luna and terra.”

Prodigy

Born in Seoul, Kwon studied computer science at the prestigious Stanford University (USA) and worked as a software engineer at Microsoft and Appleuntil he founded Anyfi, a technology company dedicated to developing connectivity alternatives.

However, with the establishment of Terraform Labs in 2018, it became known worldwide.

The Singapore-based company is a software developer specializing in building payment systems based on blockchain (chain of blocks) technology and whose goal was to a financial system without banks or intermediaries.

Do Kwon even described his luna cryptocurrency as “my greatest invention” and assured it the world would change.

The entrepreneur’s confidence attracted a select group of investors to whom he christened himself the “mads” (in honor of the coin’s name), hence the nickname they gave him “the king of madmen”.

In a short time, Terraform Labs raised millions and convinced heavyweights in the financial world to put huge sums into their algorithms. This is largely due to the good publicity that prestigious media gave it.

Forbes magazine began to regard the South Korean entrepreneur as one of the great professionals in the technology world.

But in May 2022, against the backdrop of the cryptocurrency crash, the magic surrounding Kwon’s creations and Luna went from $118 to $0.09.

The brutal fall caused panic among investors, who began selling their cryptocurrencies en masse, causing a general collapse in the industry.

Due to the corrida, companies went bankrupt such as Celsius and Three Arrows Capital.

Amid the storm that left thousands of people without their savings, Kwon said: “I am heartbroken by the pain my invention has caused everyone”.

In the middle of last year, however, he came to announce a new version of the moon.

And between apologies and announcements, the South Korean disappeared without a trace.