Do Kwon says he’s not hiding as the crypto hunt intensifies

The co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs has broken his silence after Interpol issued a red notice against him, stressing that he is not in hiding despite an escalating global manhunt.

Do Kwon has remained active on social media as the threat of prison hangs over him in South Korea. He wrote on Twitter on Monday that he made “zero effort to hide. I go on walks and shopping malls”, hinting that there has been no change in his routine.

“I write code in my living room,” he said, adding that he had not seen his name on Interpol’s red alert list. “For something that has notice in the name, it doesn’t give a notice,” he said.

Not all names on the red list are made available to the public. Kwon went to Singapore in late April, before the $40 billion implosion of the terraUSD and luna tokens in May, according to South Korean prosecutors investigating the case.

Kwon listed his location as Singapore on his Twitter account on Monday, but his whereabouts remained unclear, after Singapore police this month said he was not in the city-state.

South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday declined to say whether they had discovered Kwon’s whereabouts. “Locating and arresting someone is difficult. The situation changes every time. We are doing our best to get hold of him, says the Seoul South District Prosecutor’s Office.

Experts said it may only be a matter of time before Kwon is arrested and extradited to his home country, as law enforcement agencies around the world cooperated to find and apprehend him. Kwon and five of his associates are accused by South Korean prosecutors of financial fraud and violations of South Korea’s capital market laws.

Prosecutors have also asked Seoul’s foreign ministry to cancel Kwon’s South Korean passport, after he previously told police through his lawyer that he did not intend to appear for questioning.

The meltdown of terraUSD and luna coins affected hundreds of thousands of investors, many of whom were drawn in by a scheme where customers could lend their terra for a 20 percent return.

Kwon is facing class action lawsuits in South Korea and the United States for allegedly defrauding investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission and South Korean prosecutors are investigating Terraform Labs’ marketing tactics amid allegations that Kwon and his company may have misled investors by labeling terraUSD a stablecoin.

– Prosecutors are keen to punish him as an example, but it is another matter whether he will actually be found guilty in court, said Kim Hyoung-joong, head of the Cryptocurrency Research Center at Korea University. “There has been no legal precedent in South Korea where crypto investments were viewed as an investment contract, as the prosecution claimed.”

Terraform management has denied any fraud or breach of financial regulations.