- South Korean authorities have indicted Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin and nine other people on a number of counts.
- The assets of indictees totaling 246.8 billion won ($184.7 million) have been frozen according to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.
Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin and nine other people have been indicted by South Korean authorities on a number of counts, including breaking the legislation governing capital markets, engaging in illicit trading, and betraying trust.
As per a recent Bloomberg report, the assets of indictees totaling 246.8 billion won ($184.7 million) have been frozen according to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.
Shin and other anonymous employees of the failing crypto project had previously had their homes, vehicles, and other property taken by South Korean authorities.
The prosecutor’s attempt to bring people involved in the Terra blockchain to trial has begun with the filing of the indictment. Shin had previously denied his role, claiming he had left the business well before the project’s collapse.
Earlier attempts to detain Shin in 2022 were unsuccessful because a South Korean court denied the request for an arrest warrant. The judge concluded that Shin did pose a flight risk.
Do Kwon, his counterpart is being prosecuted in Montenegro for allegedly using false documents to enter the country. He was detained as he attempted to elude capture and travel to Dubai.
Authorities in South Korea previously disclosed that Kwon changed the majority of his assets into Bitcoin (BTC) and transported them to cryptocurrency exchanges outside of the nation.
Kwon is being sought for extradition by South Korea and the U.S. so that he can face prosecution for his part in Terra’s collapse.
Daniel Shin the bigger culprit, claims Seoul team
Dan Sung-Han, the director of Seoul Southern District’s joint financial crimes team, was in charge of leading the inquiry into the Terra-Luna collapse.
“After investigation, it was revealed that Terraform Labs, the platform that ran a blockchain-based stablecoin business, was a fabrication all along,” said Dan.
Dan asserted that Daniel Shin, who oversaw the planning and promotion of the Terra stablecoin and the related crypto company as a project capable of real-world payment usage, played a larger role in the “financial fraud” than Terraform CEO Kwon Do-hyeong.
Prosecutors in South Korea emphasized once more that there was substantial proof Shin and Terraform Labs were fully aware that Terra coins could not be used as actual payment methods.
Shin’s legal counsel responded to the charge by claiming that, at the time of Terra’s introduction, not even financial authorities had a clear opinion on the issue.
