South Korean authorities seize $160 million in Terra Executives assets: report

South Korean authorities seize $160 million in Terra Executives assets: report

About two weeks ago, Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro after attempting to fly to another country using fake documents to conceal his identity.

After his true identity was confirmed, both the United States and South Korea requested his extradition.

Seizure of assets by authorities

At the moment it is unclear which request will be prioritized by the Montenegrin authorities. In the meantime, however, Korean authorities have been busy back home, confiscating property belonging to Terraform Labs executives, according to local news.

Following Kwon's arrest, Korean law enforcement requested an arrest warrant for Shin "Daniel" Hyun-Song, the co-founder of Terraform Labs. The request was rejected because South Korean authorities did not believe he intended to destroy evidence or flee the country.

Following the rejection, South Korean police decided to take further action against the Terraform Labs co-founder and other executives, confiscating properties belonging to him and another unnamed person, according to local Korean newspaper KBS News. The property of five other Terraform Labs employees was also reportedly confiscated.

Seizure as a preventive measure

According to KBS, Korean LEOs justified the seizure by saying that the step was taken to ensure that all property of the suspects in question would be available for post-trial trial should they be found guilty. Hyun-Song is accused, among other things, of insider trading, which allegedly resulted in an unfair profit of 100 billion won, an amount worth almost $76 million.

“We are still investigating the property status of the suspects and plan to conduct a collections operation on the confirmed property in the future to recover the proceeds of crime and damages.”

The total value of the seized property is 210 billion won, or about $160 million, at the time of writing. Most of it consists of real estate, with the unnamed executive seizing property worth $31 million. Shin Hyun-Song's confiscated share, on the other hand, was worth almost twice as much.

If the allegations regarding Hyun-Song's insider trading prove to be true, it would mean that even the confiscation of his properties would not be enough to cover the ill-gotten amount, leaving another $11 million unaccounted for.

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