Twice as much as expected! Swiss prosecutors have frozen $26 million in bank assets belonging to Do Kwon.

It was reported that Swiss prosecutors froze approximately $26 million in assets, mostly in Bitcoin, held by CEO Do Kwon and others from Terraform Labs TFL, the developers of the collapsed algorithmic stablecoin UST, at Sygnum digital asset bank in Zurich, Switzerland, as of yesterday.

Do Kwon Still Holds Large Sums in Bank

According to South Korean media Digital Asset's report, Swiss authorities responded to requests from the U.S. New York federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by recently freezing approximately $26 million in fiat and crypto assets belonging to Do Kwon, including Bitcoin.

It is reported that the assets in question belong to TFL CEO Do Kwon, former Chai Corporation CEO Han Chang-jun, former head of the TFL research team Nicholas Platias, and their companies. The assets were held at Sygnum digital asset bank in Zurich, Switzerland, and the frozen assets are almost double the amount previously disclosed by South Korean prosecutors.

According to South Korean prosecutors, since Do Kwon's arrest at the end of March, entities related to him have transferred out millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, with authorities still investigating. Currently, Do Kwon still holds over $13 million in funds at Sygnum Bank.

Close Relationship Between Sygnum and Do Kwon?

According to the bank's website information, Sygnum claims to be the world's first and most influential digital asset bank, established in 2017, licensed in Switzerland and Singapore, and with offices in both countries.

In February of this year, the SEC stated in a lawsuit that assets in Do Kwon's TFL and LFG LUNA Price Defense Foundation accounts were held in multiple non-custodial and cold wallets, and that he cashed out 10,000 bitcoins through a "Swiss financial institution," later confirmed to be Sygnum Bank, speculated to be used as escape funds.

South Korean media Digital Asset also discovered that since May 2022, Do Kwon has regularly been sending funds through Sygnum Bank to a large law firm in Korea and another in the U.S., totaling around $9 million. Prosecutors suspect that these payments were disguised as legal fees but were actually used to help him evade legal responsibilities.

A Legendary Figure Who Tweets While on the Run

In May 2022, the algorithmic stablecoin UST and Luna entered a death spiral, causing significant losses to investors worldwide. The founder of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, began a ten-month escape journey.

He even tweeted in September last year claiming he was not on the run and could coordinate with government agencies if necessary.

It wasn't until March of this year that Do Kwon was finally apprehended in Montenegro, Southern Europe, and now awaits trial.

For more details on Do Kwon's ten-month escape saga, please refer to this report.