KEY POINTS

  • Terra's Do Kwon is reportedly no longer in Singapore
  • South Korean authorities have requested the country's Foreign Ministry to cancel his passport
  • Kwon says he is 'not on the run'

South Korean authorities have reportedly sought the help of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to issue a red notice for the Terraform Labs CEO and co-founder Do Kwon since his whereabouts are currently unknown.

After authorities in Singapore confirmed that Kwon was no longer in the country, South Korean authorities sought the assistance of Interpol to issue a red notice for Kwon, Financial Times reported Monday. A red notice is a request law enforcement all over the world can use to locate and arrest the individual and have them held until extradition proceedings start.

Upon issuance, the red notice is released to members of police forces across 195 countries. Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office requested the country's Foreign Ministry to revoke Kwon's passport, noting the CEO was "obviously on the run and has no intention to appear before us for questioning."

Terra Community AMA with Do Kwon (April 2021) 1-22 screenshot
Terra CEO, Do Kwon is hosted by long standing member of Terra Community @SebNondzee! Terra Official YouTube Account

On Monday, the prosecutor's office noted that it had started the process of placing Kwon on Interpol's red notice list since he has not cooperated with the investigations. Interestingly, while Kwon has repeatedly said in interviews and via his Twitter account that he is willing to work or has been working with South Korean authorities, the prosecutor's office denied this and revealed that the TFL co-founder had told investigators through his lawyer that he did not want to respond to their summons immediately, according to the Financial Times report.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said, "We are doing our best to locate and arrest him," noting that Kwon "is clearly on the run as his company's key finance people also left for the same country during that time."

Kwon slammed the claims of South Korean authorities over the weekend. In a Twitter thread, he said he is "not on the run or anything similar." He also claimed, "for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don't have anything to hide."

Kwon, known in the crypto world for engineering the algorithm stablecoin TerraUSD which crashed in May 2022, also said, "We are in the process of defending ourselves in multiple jurisdictions - we have held ourselves to an extremely high bar of integrity, and look forward to clarifying the truth over the next few months."

International Business Times reached out to a Terraform Labs representative for their comment or reaction regarding the allegations of the South Korean authorities against Kwon. We will update this article as soon as we hear from them.

Kwon's Twitter account says that his location is still Singapore.