South Korean foreign ministry orders Do Kwon to return his passport

Do Kwon, who has been named in an Interpol notice and an arrest warrant, has not been cooperative with the investigative agencies.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Oct. 6 issued an order for Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon to surrender his passport. 

The fugitive co-founder must hand over his Korean passport to authorities within 14 days of the order. Failure to comply will result in the cancellation of his passport altogether and the rejection of requests for reissuance in the future.

Another local report noted that the passport return order was issued for a total of six Terraform Labs employees including Kwon.

South Korean authorities have made significant efforts to get their hands on Kwon — a Korean court issued a warrant for his arrest on Sept. 14, followed by an Interpol Red Notice issued on Sept. 26. However, his exact current whereabouts are unknown.

Kwon became quite a controversial figure in the aftermath of the Terra ecosystem implosion, which resulted in a loss of over $40 billion in investors’ money. Even after the issuance of the arrest warrant and Interpol notice, the fugitive crypto founder claimed that he had not been contacted by any authorities regarding any investigation.

Related: Korean police reportedly arrest first person involved in Terra collapse

The Do Kwon saga took another turn last month as local reports suggested that Korean authorities have requested the freezing of $67 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) reportedly tied to the tainted co-founder. Kwon again came out to deny that the funds were his and even claimed that he had not used the two crypto exchanges mentioned in the report in two years.

Do repeatedly has implied that the South Korean government keeps lying about his case https://t.co/enaKqXBi77

— Laura Shin (@laurashin) October 5, 2022

Terraform Labs, the developer firm behind the Terra ecosystem, claimed that the case against Kwon is highly politicized. A spokesperson from the company said that prosecutors gave in to public pressure and expanded the definition of a security after its associated cryptocurrencies collapsed.