South Korean authorities have intensified their attempts to arrest Shin Hyun-Seong (Daniel Shin), Terra’s second co-founder, after the alleged “runner,” Terraform Labs’ founder Do Kwon, was caught by Montenegro officials last week while attempting to board a plane using fake papers.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, South Korea is looking to launch a new probe into Terra executives and affiliates as prosecutors get ready for Do Kwon’s return to South Korea despite efforts by other nations to extradite him.
The article indicates that the prosecutors are making a new effort to place Shin in custody. Nevertheless, no formal statement has been made public in this respect.
Daniel Shin, Do Kwon, Terraform Labs face increased investigations
With the collapse of Terraform’s native digital assets in 2022, South Korean authorities have assumed that several Terra employees aided Do Kwon in promoting risky and uncertain investment strategies.
Indictments against Terra officials and Daniel Shin were filed when South Korean authorities searched Daniel Shin’s office and other premises and found evidence of fraud, breach of duty, violation of the Capital Markets Act, and unlawful fund-raising.
However, the South Korean courts twice denied Daniel Shin’s demands for arrest warrants, citing his assurances that he wouldn’t flee the country or destroy evidence.
Prosecutors earlier claimed that Shin gained about $105 million from unlawful LUNA token sales prior to Terra’s demise.
Daniel Shin, who is also the co-founder of PortOne Global, is also accused of falsely publicizing the Terra stablecoin as a means of payment after financial authorities said they had told him to refrain from doing so.
Nevertheless, Shin contends through his attorneys that he is not associated with Terraform Labs or its operations beyond January 2020. The same is stated in his professional experience summary on LinkedIn.
Thousands of investors all throughout the world lost more than $40 billion when the Terra-Luna project failed in May 2022. That is also arguably one of the causes that contributed to the $2 trillion loss in worldwide cryptocurrency market capitalization last year.
Moreover, last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought an action against Terraform and Kwon for allegedly defrauding investors by sponsoring a “multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.”
At the time of publication, no official information on Shin Hyun Seong’s (Daniel Shin’s) arrest had been made public.
