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South Korean police say that Do Kwon, the fugitive cryptocurrency boss who caused the $40 billion (£32.5 billion) collapse of the terraUSD and Luna tokens, has been caught in Montenegro.
Prosecutors in the US have since accused him of fraud.
US regulators accused Do Kwon, and his company Terraform Labs of “running a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud” earlier this year.
When the BBC asked the company for comment, they waited to answer.
Last September, South Korean authorities issued Mr. Kwon an arrest warrant because they thought Terraform Labs had broken the rules about the capital market.
They thought he was in Serbia, and since the two countries didn’t have an extradition treaty, they sent people there to talk.
Mr. Kwon has said that he wasn’t hiding in the past, but he has never said where he was.
Montenegro’s interior minister, Filip Adzic, was the first to say he had been caught. He wrote on Twitter that “one of the world’s most wanted fugitives” had been caught at Podgorica’s airport.
Mr. Adzic also said that the suspect allegedly used a fake name and fake documents to travel. He said that the authorities were waiting for official confirmation of who the man was.
After matching his fingerprints to official records, South Korean police confirmed on Friday that the suspect in Montenegro was Do Kwon.
US prosecutors have also charged Do Kwon with fraud on its own.
According to an indictment released by the US District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, he is accused of securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy. When the BBC asked Mr. Kwon’s lawyer for a comment, the lawyer did not answer right away.
Montenegro does not have any agreements with the US or South Korea to hand over criminals.
In February, US financial regulators said that Mr. Kwon and Singapore-based Terraform Labs “failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for Luna and TerraUSD.”
They allegedly said over and over that the tokens’ value would go up and lied to investors about how stable TerraUSD was.
But in May of last year, the value of the token and the Luna cryptocurrency it was linked to fell to almost nothing.
It caused major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether to drop in price. Because of this, the word “cryptocrash” became popular online.
Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, says that investors in TerraUSD and Luna lost an estimated $42bn around the world.
At the time, Do Kwon is thought to be in Singapore, which doesn’t have an agreement with South Korea to send people there who break the law.
In a recent interview with the crypto show Coinage, Mr. Kwon said it was “kind of hard” for him to decide whether to return to South Korea.
He also said that he had yet to talk to the investigators.
The Financial Times said prosecutors plan to arrest and extradite Mr. Kwon from Singapore by canceling his passport and working with the international police organization Interpol.
Do Kwon charged with fraud by SEC.
US financial regulators have accused failed South Korean cryptocurrency boss Do Kwon and his company Terraform Labs of “orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.”
The Terra Luna and TerraUSD tokens, which a company made in Singapore, crashed spectacularly last year.
Investors are thought to have lost over $40 billion (£33.5 billion) because of the crash.
Mr. Kwon and Terraform Labs waited to answer the BBC’s request for comment.
The SEC says that Mr. Kwon and his company got billions of dollars from investors by selling them “an interconnected suite of crypto asset securities.” Many of these transactions needed to be registered.
The SEC also said that Mr. Kwon and Terraform repeatedly said that the value of the tokens would go up and misled investors about how stable TerraUSD was.
But in May of last year, the value of the token and the Luna cryptocurrency it was linked to fell to almost nothing.
Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, says that investors in TerraUSD and Luna lost an estimated $42bn worldwide.
It caused major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether to drop in price. Because of this, the word “cryptocrash” became popular online.
Read Also: US accuses Guo Wengui of fraud
The SEC complaint said other things but did not say where Mr. Kwon was.
In December, South Korean authorities said they thought Mr. Kwon was in Serbia, even though they had a warrant out for his arrest.
Do Kwon had said before that he wasn’t hiding, but he didn’t say where he was.
Opinions expressed by California Gazette contributors are their own.
