Arrest warrant issued for Do Kwon – the man blamed for 'crypto winter'
- Reference: 1663223414
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/15/terraform_ceo_do_kwon_warrant_sk/
- Source link:
The warrant alleges that Kwon and others violated the nation's capital markets law, according to [1]wire reports .
All six individuals listed on the arrest warrant are located in Singapore, according to South Korean [2]media reports .
Obviously, like in hindsight, a lot of the beliefs I had were wrong
The warrant follows the $40 billion collapse of Terraform Labs' "stablecoin" TerraUSD and the similar Luna tokens, which [3]toppled crypto-dominos and caused the so-called "crypto winter".
Such a crash was not supposed to be possible, given the value of the cryptocurrency was pegged to the US dollar. Terraform Labs promised "the Terra protocol uses the basic market forces of supply and demand to maintain the price of Terra."
[4]
But that obviously didn't happen. As the company's scheme unraveled, tales emerged of investors losing huge sums of money.
[5]
[6]
Other crypto companies, like Singapore-based Vauld, even [7]publicly attributed its fall to the collapse of Terraforms Labs' "UST" stablecoin.
[8]Crypto lender Celsius in Chapter 11 deep freeze
[9]Singapore struggles to curb cryptocurrency enthusiasm
[10]Singapore promises 'brutal and unrelentingly hard' action on dodgy crypto players
[11]Feds freeze $30m in cryptocurrency stolen from Axie Infinity
Although Terraform Labs was co-founded in Kwon's home town of Seoul, South Korea, it is incorporated in Singapore – a fact the small city-state would likely prefer to change.
The Singapore government has regularly [12]warned against investing in cryptocurrencies. In July 2022, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) managing director Ravi Menon [13]clarified in a speech that "TerraForm Labs and Luna Foundation Guard are not licensed or regulated by MAS, nor have they applied for any licence or sought exemption from holding any licence."
"In reality, these so-called 'Singapore-based' crypto firms have little to do with crypto-related regulation in Singapore," said Menon. In an interview with crypto media outlet Coinage last month, Kwon [14]said [VIDEO] South Korean investigators hadn't been in touch, nor had any charges been filed.
[15]
The comments were made about a few weeks after co-founder Daniel Shin's house was raided by South Korean prosecutors, both current and former Terraform employers were banned from international travel, and Kwon was told he must notify authorities of any plans to return to his home country.
Kwon said he planned to cooperate with the authorities, but scoffed at the assertion he sold a product so flimsy he belonged in the same category as former Theranos founder and felon [16]Elizabeth Holmes .
"Obviously, like in hindsight, a lot of the beliefs and sort of the conjectures that I had made were wrong," explained Kwon, who obviously thought his company was worthy of a second chance with a relaunch of Luna.
[17]
This week, Terraform Labs [18]announced via LinkedIn it had revamped its website after around four months of inactivity. Doubtless this will be just the fillip needed to please investors who lost money. ®
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[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-14/south-korea-seeks-the-arrest-of-terraform-labs-founder-do-kwon
[2] https://www.chosun.com/national/court_law/2022/09/14/2YBHH4ZQKFCKBJJPENIHHQYOOQ/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/17/terrausd_luna_crash/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YyL3wud0nRpOJYWTVgRAxAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YyL3wud0nRpOJYWTVgRAxAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyL3wud0nRpOJYWTVgRAxAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/07/singapore_crypto_regulations/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/14/frozen_cryptocurrency_lending_biz_celsius/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/30/singapore_struggles_to_taper_cryptocurrency/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/27/singapore_cbdc_crypto_policy/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/09/cryptocurrency_lazarus_axie/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/30/singapore_struggles_to_taper_cryptocurrency/
[13] https://www.mas.gov.sg/news/speeches/2022/remarks-by-mr-ravi-menon-managing-director-mas-at-the-mas-annual-report-2021-2022-media-conference-on-19-july-2022
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g9ycHS0xtU
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YyL3wud0nRpOJYWTVgRAxAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/07/former_theranos_coo_found_guilty/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyL3wud0nRpOJYWTVgRAxAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6975122882238562304/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I am looking forward to the crypto ice-age....
Sorry, if the thing had an inherent value it would have rebounded by now. Is he the meteor that causes the extinction of the crypto currencies? I for one am hoping.
Re: I am looking forward to the crypto ice-age....
I'm with you on that one.
Re: I am looking forward to the crypto ice-age....
I think we need to run
terraform destroy -auto-approve
"Obviously, [..] a lot of the beliefs and sort of the conjectures that I had made were wrong,"
Yeah. For starters, dealing in funny money.
Crypto-currencies can't die fast enough
... yet, I have friends, colleagues, who still smell the (virtual) money, and refuse to smell the coffee.
Now, I appreciate that as a 50-plusser, my view on money is massively different to the Gen-whatever who are flinging money they think they can afford into crypto-currency.
Even ex-colleagues who did this up to 5 years ago, now say they'd not touch with a bargepole, but granted they gave the bag to the current holders and made real cash out of it.
Re: Crypto-currencies can't die fast enough
Look, dont be too hard on the younger generations for looking for ways to make some money like this. A) young people tend to be more risk adverse (part of the learning experience), but more importantly, B) Most dont see a way based on current salaries and standard investments to be able to ever buy their own homes, or make similar personal investments.
House and Land prices are so high (and not showing any sign of coming down) that most young people on engineering level salaries wont be able to afford buying a house until there around 40 these days (especially after paying of student debts). If at all.
Interest rates are 0%, so there's no point saving in a bank. You could put any money you want to save into shares, etc. but growth is not that great unless you go high risk, so why wouldnt you go one step further on the risk/reward ladder and try your hand at crypto. And if you dont think that money in it's current level will be of any help to your long term hopes (i.e. buying a house), then why not gamble with it? Don't get me wrong, I think it's a stupid decision to make, but I can understand what drives it.
Governments really need to start doing more to stop properties being bought up by companies and landowners who are buying to turn the places into rental properties. Let the younger generations get on the property ladder, otherwise there will be a massive crisis in the future. We dont need to go back to the time of Lords and Serfs now do we?
s/investors/gamblers/
Nothing more need be said.
News Flash: Crypto Ice age to save the world from global warming!
How can we ever thank these heroes enough? I feel so ashamed now for being such a skeptic.
"Obviously, like in hindsight, it would have been good if I hadnt scammed all those people into thinking Terra was actually worth something. But hey, I made a ton of money, so we're all good, right?"
(What he really wanted to say, no doubt...)