"Haihh after a long time I was able to catch this sneaky Kwon who escaped."
Immediately after the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Terraform Labs Do Kwon was arrested in Podgorica, Montenegro, the United States (US) prosecutor in New York has charged him with fraud.
In a court filing signed by US Attorney Damian Williams, Kwon was also charged with eight separate counts of commodity fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and engaging in market manipulation.
US prosecutors said that Kwon made several false and misleading statements during his interview regarding the extent to which Terra's blockchain was being adopted by users.
While Kwon not only manipulated the effectiveness of the stablecoin TerraClassicUSD (USTC) to maintain a peg with the US dollar, but also changed the market price of the digital asset through malicious trading strategies.
In context, Kwon and his business partner Hon Chang Joon were detained at Podgorica Airport while trying to flee to Dubai using false travel documents from Costa Rica.
A search of the luggage also found forged Belgian travel documents along with three laptops and five mobile phones.
According to a March 23 report by Montenegro-based newspaper Pobjeda, the State Prosecution Office will file criminal charges against Kwon and Joon following the use of the fake document, where it was first discovered by Interpol.
It is understood that the criminal offense is subject to Article 412 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro which carries a maximum prison sentence of three years.
