Interpol Confirms Arrest Of Crypto Fugitive In Montenegro

Interpol says a man arrested in Montenegro is Kwon Do-hyeong, also known as Do Kwon, the disgraced founder of a collapsed crypto company who is wanted in South Korea and the United States on fraud and other charges, Yoonjung Seo, AnneClaire Stapleton and Josh Pennington reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: Kwon, a South Korean national, founded the blockchain platform behind the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister coin Luna.

Kwon, a South Korean national, founded the blockchain platform behind the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister coin Luna.

Both coins lost their value in a matter of days in May 2022, wiping about $40 billion from the crypto market and setting off panic across the speculative sector. Kwon’s identity was confirmed through a fingerprint match, Interpol’s national central bureau in Seoul told CNN on Friday.

A day earlier, Montenegrin Internal Affairs Minister Filip Adžić wrote on social media that a man believed to be Kwon was arrested in the capital Podgorica.

“He was arrested at the airport with counterfeit documentation and is wanted by several countries, including the US, South Korea, and Singapore,” Adžić said in a Facebook post.

Kwon was based in Singapore while running the blockchain platform Terraform Labs. Seoul prosecutors told CNN in December that the crypto entrepreneur was believed to be in Serbia, where he was in hiding after leaving Singapore via Dubai, Jake Kwon also reported for CNN.

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