In the wake of the recent legal action against ten associates of Terraform Labs, which included the co-founder Shin Hyun-seong, known to many as Daniel Shin, it appears that prosecutors from Seoul are convinced that Terraform Labs and co-founder Do Kwon are still in possession of a considerable sum of money, specifically 130 billion won ($100 million), held in a Swiss bank account.
South Korean Prosecutors Claim Do Kwon and Terraform Labs Still Own $100 Million Tucked Away in a Swiss Bank Account, SEC Complaint Backs Theory
As reported by Park Beom-soo, a local journalist, following the Terraform Labs indictment, Do Kwon and his associates allegedly transferred 10,000 bitcoin (BTC) to a fintech bank headquartered in Switzerland. Sygnum Bank, a digital asset financial institution based in Zurich, was reportedly the recipient of this sizable transfer. It has since come to light that the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office has been closely monitoring the movement of Terra-linked bitcoin and has revealed this information during a press conference held to discuss the recent indictment.
The prosecutor’s office’s spokesperson stated, “We are actively tracking the bitcoin owned by LFG (Luna Foundation Guard), but some of it has been converted into cash and deposited into the Signum account. As outlined in the SEC complaint, the amount transferred is approximately 100 million dollars (about 130 billion won).” It would appear that the investigation into Terraform Labs and Do Kwon’s financial dealings is ongoing, and further details may come to light concerning this matter.
Onchain Researcher: LFG ‘Failed to Account for the Trail of Bread Crumbs Left by the Change Outputs’
Just before Terra collapsed, Terra’s Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), an organization created to defend the blockchain stablecoin UST’s dollar peg, accumulated a massive amount of bitcoin. The funds were meant to protect UST from dropping below the $1 parity but the fallout was so bad, LFG and Terra’s leaders like Do Kwon could not save it. After the collapse, it was speculated that LFG did not use all the funds to defend the stablecoin, and LFG fired back by releasing an audit that claimed the group used more than 80,000 BTC to defend the coin’s peg.
However, OXT researcher Ergo BTC discovered that the blockchain “tells a different story” in a Twitter thread from October 2022. Ergo said that while LFG may have declared ownership of a single wallet holding 313 BTC, their actions have left a breadcrumb trail of evidence that could be easily followed. Ergo discovered a group of fifteen significant Binance withdrawals made to a single address. The coins were then consolidated and used in a series of transactions spanning several months. Shortly after the first withdrawal from Binance, 665 BTC were spent on Kucoin, and on May 16, the remaining 313 BTC were transferred to the new LFG address, providing evidence of their association.
Ergo further said that the sequence of transactions continued for many months and “unfortunately for the LFG, these (reused addresses) were active prior the depeg event, providing additional clues for investigators.” The researcher further added that while the LFG may argue that the pseudonymity of BTC provides them with a veil of anonymity, it is clear that the activity the researcher observed is “directly related to the funding of the LFG treasury.” Park Beom-soo’s report further confirmed to Ergo that the onchain activity the OXT researcher monitored aligns more closely with the Seoul prosecutor’s report than the story told by Do Kwon and the LFG audit.
What are your thoughts on the ongoing investigation into Terraform Labs and the allegations that the company and co-founder Do Kwon are still in possession of a substantial sum of money? Do you believe that the findings from the U.S. SEC and the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office align? Share your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.