Prosecutors in Switzerland have frozen $26 million in bitcoin (BTC) and U.S. dollars belonging to disgraced Terraform Labs (TFL) founder Do Kwon. According to a local media outlet report, the Swiss prosecutors acted at the request of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the New York Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
Kwon’s Assets Frozen in Switzerland
The report stated the assets were stored in Signum Bank, based in Zurich, Switzerland. The bank touts itself as the world’s first digital asset bank and operates in Switzerland, Singapore, and UAE.
Meanwhile, the frozen assets are not only for Kwon. Former CEO of Chai Corporation Chang-Joon Han, former head of TFL research team Nicholas Platias, and TFL corporation all own a part of it.
Interestingly, the size of the assets in question is twice the amount previously estimated by Korean prosecutors. Earlier this month, Dan Seong-Han, head of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office’s financial and securities crime division, told Bloomberg that Kwon and others have more than $13 million in Signum.
“For this reason, attention is drawn to whether Swiss prosecutors and U.S. federal prosecutors have found bitcoins that have not been known so far,” the report said.
In a February fraud lawsuit, the SEC claimed that Kwon transferred 10,000 BTC out of TFL and Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) to a Swiss bank account and converted it to cash.
Kwon Faces Jail in Montenegro
Meanwhile, the latest report comes as Kwon and Han are currently facing four months jail term in Montenegro for document forgery. The duo was arrested at Podgorica Airport while trying to travel to Dubai using falsified Costa Rican documents.
Before his arrest, Kwon had claimed he was not on the run even as authorities in South Korea launched an international search for him, including requesting a red notice from Interpol.
The TFL founder is wanted in his native South Korea, the United States, and Singapore for fraud and financial crimes related to the collapse of TFL’s crypto assets (TerraUSD and Luna). In May 2022, TerraUSD, created as an algorithmic stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, failed to maintain its $1 parity, resulting in a loss of approximately $40 billion in market value for holders of the stablecoin and TFL’s native token Luna.
