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Oct. 6 (UPI) — South Korea’s Foreign Ministry Thursday ordered fugitive cryptocurrency executive Do Kwon to surrender his passport by Oct. 19 or risk having it canceled. Kwon’s location is unknown.
South Korea has arrested Yoo Mo, a business associate of Kwon’s who was head of the business team at Kwon’s company Terraform Labs. It’s the first arrest in the months-long investigation into the collapse of the crypto company.
Kwon is the founder of Terraform Labs, a company that collapsed, erasing $60 billion in terraUSD and luna digital coins from the cryptocurrency market. Bloomberg reports that Interpol has issued a “red notice” for Do Kwon, alerting law enforcement around the world that he is wanted.
Kwon denies he is a fugitive. South Korean authorities have frozen $39.6 million in crypto they said is owned by Kwon. They earlier requested that cryptocurrency exchanges KuCoin and OKx freeze over $60 million allegedly tied to Kwon.
In a Wednesday tweet, Kwon disputed that his money had been frozen.
“I don’t get the motivation behind spreading this falsehood — muscle flexing? But to what end? Once again, I don’t even use Kucoin and OkEx, I have no time to trade, no funds have been frozen.”
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s office has obtained an arrest warrant for Kwon, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Prosecutors allege Kwon and five others broke capital markets laws and committed fraud.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a public announcement notifying Kwon his passport will be invalid in 14 days. The government said the public notice was being used due to an inability to deliver the passport return order by mail.
South Korean prosecutors have launched an international manhunt for Kwon.