The controversial founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, is understood to be currently in Serbia, a nation in Southeast Europe, after leaving Singapore in September.
According to a December 11 report from Chosun Media, South Korean authorities followed up on a tip about Do Kwon's whereabouts, suggesting that he is now in Serbia and has been able to confirm it.
"Recently, we got intelligence that CEO Kwon was in Serbia and it was found to be true," an official told the outlet.
The report also states that the South Korean Ministry of Finance "is in the process of requesting the cooperation of the Serbian government" as part of the investigation.
South Korean authorities have been on the hunt for Do Kwon since Terra's collapse, but evidently haven't had much luck pinpointing his location.
The 31-year-old was understood to have moved to Singapore at the end of April, just before the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.
On September 14, the Securities and Financial Criminal Unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office issued an arrest warrant for Kwon for violating South Korea's capital markets laws.
Around that time, Singaporean authorities confirmed that Kwon was no longer in the country and it was understood that he had flown to Dubai in transit to an unknown new destination.
Shortly after, on September 26, Interpol has also reportedly issued a โRed Noticeโ against Kwon. However, to this day, Do Kwon's list still does not appear to have been added to Interpol's Red Notices database on the website.
In October, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an order for Kwon to hand over his passport October 6. The Ministry added that non-compliance would result in the total cancellation of his passport.
Later that month, prosecutors in South Korea C.confirmed reports that Do Kwon had flown to Dubai for a possible layover before heading to another destination, which it turns out could be Serbia.
If Do Kwon turns out to be in Serbia, it remains to be seen what, if any, legal strings can be pulled out of South Korea to try to extradite the Terraform Labs founder.
While South Korea has entry in a bilateral extradition treaty with 31 countries, Serbia is not. However, South Korea has also signed a much broader multilateral extradition treaty with the Council of Europe to which Serbia is a signatory.
Related: Terra co-founder Do Kwon faces $57 million lawsuit in Singapore
Kwon has kept that he is not "on the run" and that he is โmaking zero effort to hide,โ and has remained active on social media for the past few months.
The collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May was triggered in part by the depegging of its Terra USD Classic algorithmic stablecoin, USTC (formerly UST), which in turn reduced its Luna Classic sister asset, LUNC (formerly LUNA) by almost 100%. .
Cointelegraph reached out to Terraform Labs representatives for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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