South Korean authorities seized millions of dollars-worth of assets from Terraform Labs employees.
According to a report from local media publication KBS News, the financial and securities crime division from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office collected 210 billion won worth of assets, worth around $160 million, from eight people associated with Terraform Labs.
Among those who had their assets seized was Terra Co-Founder Shin Hyun-seong, who also served as CEO of Chai Corporation – another entity founded by Do Kwon that utilized the Terra network to facilitate payments.
So far, prosecutors have seized 100 billion won worth of property from Shin, including his residence in Seoul last November. They plan to track down and freeze the remainder of hidden assets in Shin’s name as part of their investigation into at least 154 billion won worth of undue gains made while operating Terra.
Authorities found that Shin unfairly profited from acquiring LUNA before it was officially issued and selling it in the open market after its price increased substantially.
Residences and land were also seized from an individual named Kim Mo, a CEO with ties to Terraform Labs, and another anonymous Terra employee.
The asset seizures are a preventive measure to ensure that suspects involved in the case cannot arbitrarily dispose of assets before trial.
“We are still investigating the property ownership status of the suspects, and we plan to carry out collection preservation for the confirmed property in the future in order to recover the proceeds of crime and recover damages,” said an official from the prosecution to KBS.
Meanwhile, Kwon and his Terra CFO Hon Chang Joon are awaiting trial in Montenegro, following their arrest last week on charges of attempting to leave the country with forged travel documents.
South Korea and the U.S. have already requested Kwon’s extradition – something the former is likely to be granted based on how Montenegro assesses these requests.
