Switzerland freezes US$26 million in crypto held by Terraform Labs and Do Kwon

Danny Park

11 months ago

Swiss prosecutors have reportedly frozen about US$26 million in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that belong to Terraform Labs, its chief executive officer Kwon Do-hyeong, former chief financial officer Han Chang-joon, former head of research Nicholas Platias and others. The crypto was stored in Swiss-based digital asset bank Sygnum, South Korean news outlet Digital Asset reported Saturday citing unnamed authorities and investigators.

Fast facts

Swiss authorities froze the crypto following requests from the U.S. federal prosecutors of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Digital Asset reported.
South Korean prosecutors also announced in April that they had identified a significant amount of “criminal proceeds” involved with Terraform Labs that flowed into a Swiss-based bank, and had requested overseas authorities to freeze those assets.
As of publication time, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has not responded to Forkast’s email request for comment that was sent Monday afternoon in Asia.
Terraform’s algorithmic stablecoin and cryptocurrency project Terra-Luna collapsed in May 2022, wiping out over US$40 billion in market capitalization. Kwon is wanted in the U.S. and South Korea where prosecutors accuse him of fraud, securities law violations and several other charges related to the collapse.
Kwon has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him. He admitted that mistakes were made in the Terra-Luna crypto project managed by his company Terraform Labs but argued there was never any intent to deceive investors.
Last week, a Montenegro district court sentenced Kwon and former Terra financial chief Han to four months in jail for forging travel documents, following their arrest on March 24 at the Montenegrin international airport.