Do Kwon Hunt Intensifies As S. Korean Authorities Attempt To Arrest TFL CEO In The Balkans

The manhunt for Do Kwon intensified as South Korean authorities went to the Balkans in an attempt to locate and arrest the fugitive and embattled CEO of Terraform Labs (TFL).

A team of South Korean officials went to Serbia last week to seek local authorities' cooperation in locating and arresting Kwon, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

The office of the prosecutor in Seoul reportedly confirmed the news and noted that a senior Justice Ministry official was with the team.

In November, prosecutors said Kwon was hiding in Serbia and sought the aid of the Serbian government to arrest and extradite the TFL CEO.

Prosecutors claimed at the time that Kwon moved to the Balkans via Dubai sometime in September after he exited Singapore where he went following the spectacular collapse of Terra that wiped out around $40 billion of investors' money.

In theory, the embattled TFL CEO is unable to travel to any country since his South Korean passport was revoked last year. Authorities also sought the help of Interpol, which reportedly placed him on the Red Notice list in September.

Rumors about Kwon's presence in Serbia further intensified last year when Digital Asset, a local news outlet in South Korea, reported that he had cashed out Bitcoins at one of the Bitcoin ATMs in the country.

Kwon allegedly withdrew 9.46 BTC, which was equivalent to approximately $162,189 at the time, using the Luna Foundation Guard wallet based on on-chain data.

The TFL CEO is wanted in South Korea for violating the Capital Markets Act and committing fraud, charges which he vehemently denied and called "politically motivated."

Legal experts in South Korea previously said that Serbia is a possible spot for Kwon since the country has no extradition treaty with the Southeast Asian nation and without this, prosecutors may have a hard time arresting the CEO.

Seung Jae-Hyeon, a researcher at the Korea Criminal Justice Policy Institute, said that "in order for South Korean prosecutors to secure an arrest, Serbia must issue an extradition order, and extraditions need to be mutually beneficial. Serbia is still an unprecedented nation in this regard."

Since Terra's so-called algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), depegged and Terra Network's native token LUNA crashed in May 2022, South Korean authorities have not yet prosecuted anyone from Terraform Labs, the company that developed and launched the network.

Kwon, who is sometimes active on Twitter, said in the past that he is not in hiding.