Suspected cryptocurrency fraudster Do Kwon has been arrested after almost a year on the run.
The South Korean national was arrested in Montenegro, in southeastern Europe, while at an airport in the country’s capital, where he was found with “falsified documents”, The Guardian reported.
“Montenegrin police have detained a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean citizen, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs,” interior minister Filip Adžić wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
“We are waiting for official confirmation of identity.”
Two suspects were arrested after they tried boarding a plane to Dubai following police discovered they had forged Costa Rican and Belgian passports with them, Mr Adžić said.
Interpol, comprising 195 nations, in September was distributed a “red notice” by South Korea for the 31-year-old.
Mr Kwon was wanted along with five others in connection to Terraform – a digital currency that imploded in May 2022.
While it was meant to serve as a “stablecoin” and remain stable throughout price fluctuations, about $US40 billion ($60 billion) in market value disappeared for TerraUSD in May last year when it, along with its sister currency Luna, collapsed below $US1.
A civil lawsuit was filed in February by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Kwon and Terraform Labs in Manhattan federal court.
In the suit, they were accused of “orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud”.
Multiple investors lost their life savings when Terra and Luna crashed prompting South Korean authorities to establish several criminal investigations into what happened.
Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators across the globe following a string of recent controversies, including the high-profile collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
FTX and its sister trading house Alameda Research went bankrupt late last year, dissolving a virtual trading business that had been valued by the market at $US32 billion.
The fall of FTX has caused major doubts about the long-term viability of cryptocurrency and heaped stress on further platforms and entities that rode the success of Bitcoin and other currencies.
To add to its mounting woes, the digital currency sector has also been hit hard by the demise of US crypto lenders Silvergate and Signature amid a string of banking failures that have rattled global markets and sparked fears of future economic turmoil.
— with AFP