Terra’s Do Kwon loses passport weeks after Interpol red notice • TechCrunch

South Korea has ordered Do Kwon to surrender his passport or risk having it revoked, as the East Asian nation escalates a crackdown on the crypto entrepreneur, whose blockchain crash earlier this year wiped out $40 billion from investors.

The South Korean government gave Kwon 14 days to comply with the new order, the website said in a statement on Thursday. The order follows Interpol issuing a red notice against the crypto entrepreneur last month, demanding that law enforcement agencies around the world find and arrest him.

Kwon’s current whereabouts are unknown, but he keeps his followers updated on his life via Twitter.

On Wednesday, he denied claims that his crypto funds had been frozen after media reports said South Korean prosecutors had escalated action against him.

Korean media outlet News1 reported that prosecutors have frozen $39.6 million worth of crypto assets linked to the founder and CEO of Terraform Labs. The report was amplified by CoinDesk, a popular crypto-focused news outlet.

In response, Kwon labeled the news a “lie,” reiterating that he does not use KuCoin and OkEx. “You have no trading time, no frozen funds,” he said. “I don’t know whose funds they froze, but good for them, I hope they use it for good,” he added.

The collapse of the cryptocurrency Terra (Luna) and the so-called stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) in May wiped out $40 billion from investors, causing an uproar that prompted prosecutors to launch investigations into Kwon and his colleagues.

Kwon previously said he was not trying to hide from authorities and was not absconding, a characterization that South Korean prosecutors denied.