Terra Co-Founder Has Been Arrested By Korean Prosecutors Over $105M LUNA Sale

Daniel Shin went to a trial about whether he ought to be captured for supposedly separating unlawful benefits preceding Land’s breakdown.

Terraform Labs prime supporter Daniel Shin showed up in court Friday, at a meeting to conclude whether he ought to be captured for purportedly removing unlawful benefits preceding the breakdown of the Land environment.

Per the Korea Times, Shin stands accused of selling a $105 million hoard of Terra’s LUNA tokens at the cryptocurrency’s peak price; the tokens had been pre-issued without regular investors being made aware of the fact. The court will decide whether to approve Shin’s arrest either Friday or Saturday, with prosecutors arguing that Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency constitutes a financial investment security.

Shin guaranteed that over 70% of his LUNA property was offered preceding the value flood and that he held a huge sum at the hour of the digital currency’s accident.

Along with Shin, seven other early investors and Terraform Labs engineers are also named in the warrant. According to local news outlet JTBC, one of those accused worked for Kernel Labs, a firm set up by former Terra developers.

South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Terraform Labs’ CEO and co-founder Do Kwon in September, with Kwon claiming that he is “not on the run” despite being the subject of an Interpol red notice. In October, his passport was voided by South Korean authorities.

Do Kwon’s legitimate burdens have kept on mounting, with a $57 million legal claim brought against the Land prime supporter in late October?

The Terra environment collapsed in May 2022, clearing out some $40 billion of financial backers’ support in weeks. The breakdown sent shockwaves through the crypto market, with the cost of Bitcoin and other digital forms of money tumbling, and eventually prompting the liquidations of crypto banks including Celsius, Explorer, and BlockFi, and multifaceted investments Three Bolts Capital.

Blockchain analytics firms including Nansen and Glassnode have also reported that the collapse of Terra led to the downfall of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, as crypto contagion spread throughout the industry.