South Korean prosecutors have revealed that Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, paid $7 million to the prestigious Kim & Chang law firm just before the dramatic collapse of the Terra ecosystem. This payment, which prosecutors consider a calculated move, is thought to demonstrate Kwon’s awareness of the impending downfall and his anticipation of legal issues.
The prosecutors aim to leverage this information in the ongoing fraud case against Kwon. Additionally, lawyers from Kim & Chang have reportedly traveled to Montenegro to meet with Kwon and Terraform’s ex-CFO, Han Chang-joon. Kwon was previously arrested at an airport in Montenegro while attempting to travel to Dubai using falsified documents. Both the US and South Korean authorities have been seeking his extradition, but the court has not yet made a decision.
On April 7th, South Korean prosecutors accused Kwon of converting illicit funds from LUNA to Bitcoin and requested that Binance halt all withdrawal requests connected to him. In total, they have identified $314.2 million in illegal assets linked to Kwon and his associates, with about $69 million reportedly directly tied to Kwon himself. A Binance spokesperson has confirmed their cooperation with Korean authorities but declined to comment further on the ongoing investigation.