South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they have sought arrest warrants for eight people linked to Terraform Labs for the alleged fraud as local authorities expand their investigation into the collapse of the TerraUSD and Luna tokens worth tens of billions of dollars earlier this year. wiped out from the crypto market. year.
The Seoul South District Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to businessroundups.org that it is seeking arrest warrants for eight people, including Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin, three Terraform investors, and four engineers from the cryptocurrencies TerraUSD (UST) and Luna, but has released the identity not disclosed. of most individuals.
The move comes two months after South Korea issued an arrest warrant for another co-founder, Do Kwon, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, and requested Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, to issue a red notice for Kwon.
Prosecutors suspect Shin of taking illegal profits worth about $105 million (140 billion won) by selling Luna at its peak without properly disclosing to investors prior to Terra-Luna’s collapse, according to a report in the local media Yonhap. Shin is also accused of using customer data from his separate fintech startup Chai to promote Luna in violation of the Electric Financial Transaction Act. Local authorities reportedly raided Chai’s office mid-November as part of the UST-Luna fraud investigation.
Shin has refuted the claims of Luna trading at a market high and violating the clients’ data. Shin’s lawyer said today that Shin left Terraform two years ago before the collapse of Terra-Luna, and that he has no connection to the failure. according to local media.
Terraform was founded in Singapore in 2018 by Do Kwon and Shin. Shin left Terraform in March 2020 to found Chai and stepped down as CEO of Chai earlier this year.
The Seoul South District Prosecutor has confirmed that a court will hold a hearing on Friday, December 2 to determine the validity of the arrest warrants.
Terraform’s UST and Luna fell out of favor in early May after the so-called stablecoin decoupled from its $1 value, wiping out investors’ $40 billion and sparking uproar. South Korean prosecutors began the investigation after the crash of the UST-Luna token.
