Swiss Prosecutors Freeze $26M In Crypto Assets Linked To Do Kwon, TFL Executives

Just a week after the Basic Court of Podgorica sentenced Do Kwon to four months of imprisonment for possession of forged travel documents, Swiss prosecutors have reportedly seized approximately $26 million in Bitcoin and other crypto assets. The assets are alleged to be owned by Terraform Labs (TFL), its chief executive, and several executives, including former chief financial officer Han Chang-joon and former head of research Nicholas Platias.

Swiss authorities froze the funds at the request of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the New York Federal Prosecutor's Office, a Korean news outlet reported over the weekend.

In February, the SEC accused Kwon of moving over 10,000 Bitcoin from Terraform Labs and Luna Foundation Guard, converting some of the crypto assets into cash through a Swiss bank account. This occurred following the collapse of Terra's algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its native token LUNA in May 2022.

The SEC revealed that "between June 2022 and the date of this complaint, over $100 million in fiat currency has been withdrawn from that Swiss bank."

Although the name of the financial institution was not disclosed by the SEC, South Korean authorities previously identified the Swiss bank as Sygnum Bank AG, the world's first digital asset-regulated bank based in Zurich, Switzerland.

After Kwon's arrest in Montenegro in March, multiple crypto wallets allegedly belonging to him were mysteriously drained of over $2 million shortly after South Korean prosecutors moved to freeze his assets. Within two days of his arrest, digital assets withdrawn from wallets linked to the TFL CEO amounted to approximately $2.15 million.

The development involving Kwon's alleged assets at Sygnum Bank occurred just a week after his four-month prison sentence for possession of forged travel documents. While the Basic Court in Montenegro approved Kwon's bail proposal, he was ordered to remain in prison pending the court's consideration of extradition requests from the U.S. and South Korea.

Kwon is also entangled in Montenegro's politics as he has reportedly informed the country's prime minister that he financially supported Europe Now, a local political party.

Earlier this year, the U.S. SEC officially charged Kwon and his company Terraform Labs with defrauding investors for its LUNA and Terra USD (UST) crypto assets.

"We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for LUNA and Terra USD," SEC chair Gary Gensler said, adding, "We also allege that they committed fraud by repeating false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating losses for investors."