Authorities in South Korea are still looking into the collapse of the Terra ecosystem more than six months after it happened and have frozen the funds of those who were involved.Shin Hyun-Seong, a co-founder of Terra, had 140 billion won ($108 million) seized from him in November, and the Seoul Southern District Court has just decided to seize more Terra-related assets.
According to The Korea Economic Daily, on December 20, a South Korean court ordered the assets of the current and past CEOs of Terraform Labs’ affiliate company Kernel Labs to be frozen at 120 billion won ($92 million).
Kernel Labs is a blockchain consulting company that specializes in decentralized applications and blockchain payment networks. It was founded in 2018. Due to CEO Kim Hyun-alleged joong’s prior employment as Terraform Labs’ vice president of engineering, it is thought that Kernel Labs and Terraform Labs have a tight working relationship. Some sources claim that workers from Terraform Labs’ South Korean headquarters also came from Kernel Labs.
The Seoul Southern District Court has granted the prosecution’s plea to seize the property of seven people who were involved in selling pre-issued Terra (LUNA) tokens in order to generate enormous profits, according to a recent article.One of the parties in the case is Kernel Labs CEO Kim, who is said to be in possession of the highest amount of unlawful Terra earnings.
Kim’s illegal earnings were worth at least 79 billion won ($61 million), according to the prosecution. Additionally, prosecutors discovered that a previous CEO of Kernel Labs earned around 41 billion won ($31 million) in unlawful proceeds from Terra.
In 2021, Kim reportedly made a number of significant real estate purchases in South Korea. He paid 35 billion won ($27 million) for a building in Gangnam-gu, the priciest district of Seoul, in November. He also paid almost 9 billion won ($7 million) for an apartment in Seongdong-gu in June.
The news comes as international law enforcement agencies continue to look for controversial Terraform Labs founder and CEO Do Kwon. The most recent indications indicate that Kwon, who left Singapore a few months ago, is thought to have been hiding in Serbia as of mid-December, according to South Korean police.
As was previously reported, one of the largest contagion events in the cryptocurrency market in 2022 was the collapse of Terra. Before it lost its peg to the dollar in May, TerraUSD Classic (USTC), an algorithmic stablecoin, was among the top 10 cryptocurrencies.
