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'Wanted by Several Countries.' Crypto Fugitive Is Nabbed in Montenegro. Do Kwon was wanted in South Korea and the U.S. on fraud charges related to TerraUSD and Luna crash.

By Jonathan Small

Interpol announced this evening the arrest of Kwon Do-hyeong, also known as Do Kwon, a disgraced crypto fugitive.

Do Kwon is the founder of TerraUSD stablecoin and Luna, two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion last year.

Interpol apprehended Kwon, 31, and another person of interest at an airport in Montenegro. According to the Interior Ministry there, the two were using forged documents to travel to Dubai.

"He was arrested at the airport with counterfeit documentation and is wanted by several countries, including the USA, South Korea, and Singapore," Montenegrin Internal Affairs Minister Filip Adžić wrote in a Facebook post.

The arrest is the culmination of an international months-long search for Do Kwon. South Korea had asked Interpol to issue a "red notice," which allows other countries to arrest Kwon.

According to the New York Times, U.S. prosecutors in the Southern District of New York filed criminal charges against Mr. Kwon a few hours after his arrest. The charges include wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation.

Who is Do Kwon?

Kwon graduated from Stanford and briefly worked at Apple before designing his two cryptocurrencies. TerraUSD was a "stablecoin," supposed to maintain a constant price of $1, while Luna's value fluctuated.

Between 2021 and early 2022, Luna was valued at $40 billion. Kwon became widely popular. His fans called themselves "Lunatics."

But Luna ultimately crashed—its value wiped clean overnight. The crash caused a domino effect on other popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Soon after, Kwon went into hiding.

Kwon claimed on Twitter that he was "not on the run."

But according to CNN, a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Kwon last September. He was believed to be in Serbia.
Jonathan Small

Entrepreneur Staff

Founder, Strike Fire Productions

Jonathan Small is a bestselling author, journalist, producer, and podcast host. For 25 years, he has worked as a sought-after storyteller for top media companies such as The New York Times, Hearst, Entrepreneur, and Condé Nast. He has held executive roles at Glamour, Fitness, and Entrepreneur and regularly contributes to The New York Times, TV Guide, Cosmo, Details, Maxim, and Good Housekeeping. He is the former “Jake” advice columnist for Glamour magazine and the “Guy Guru” at Cosmo.

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