According to reports, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office has seized assets from eight people linked to the demise of Terraform Labs, including co-founder Daniel Shin. Reflecting on the accounts, the prosecutors’ efforts were taken to stop former Terra workers from disposing of assets in an effort to include them in prospective legal cases.
Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, was detained in Montenegro about two weeks ago after attempting to board a plane while concealing his name with fictitious papers. Following the discovery of his true name, the United States and South Korea both sought his extradition.
Hyun-Song is charged with several offences, including commodities fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, plots to commit fraud, manipulate the market, and insider trading, which is claimed to have led to an ill-gotten gain of 100 billion won, or roughly $76 million.
On the third of April, authorities confiscated property associated with former Terra workers, primarily in the form of real estate, for over 210 billion won which is around $160 million. As per reports, law enforcement officials seized homes and properties worth around $60 million and $31 million each that belonged to former Terra Vice President Kim Mo and an unidentified executive.
One among the regulators stated, “We are still investigating the property ownership status of the suspects, and we plan to carry out collection preservation for the confirmed property in the future in order to recover the proceeds of crime and recover damages.” The regulators seized Shin’s home in Seoul in November in a move akin to this, but are still looking into other properties allegedly linked to the Terra co-founder.
A number of hedge funds and exchanges became overexposed as a result of TerraUSD’s unexpected separation from its U.S. dollar peg in May, with effects felt throughout the whole sector. There were accusations formed by investors against the CEO for fraud and law violation. Such violation of the trust among investors led to the formation of the Digital Assets Framework Act of 2022
The requirements of the present Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act were applied to crypto assets that are classified as securities. Reflecting on Lee Bok-Hyeon, the chairman of the FSS, there had been consensus among policymakers and regulators that “the regulation of stablecoins” had to be “strengthened.”
No South Korean legislation had issued an arrest order for Shin. Additionally, no crypto assets that were confiscated as part of the probe were mentioned in the report. If Hyun-Song’s insider trading claims turn out to be accurate, even the confiscation of his real estate would not be sufficient to cover the amount obtained through unlawful means, leaving an additional $11 million unaccounted for.