South Korea Imposes Travel Embargo On Terraform Labs Employees Pending Crypto Investigation

  • South Korean prosecutors have banned Terraform Labs employees from leaving the country pending an investigation after its cryptocurrency's $40 billion wipeout, the Financial Times reports.
  • Investors alleged that Terraform founders and the company duped investors with their flawed algorithmic coins.
  • Around 15 people, including former project developers for the Anchor lending protocol, received travel restrictions, Bloomberg reports.
  • The regulators stepped up their investigation into the company and its co-founders following TerraUSD stablecoin's collapse that wiped off $40 billion in market value for holders of UST and its sister coin Luna.
  • Prosecutors could also invalidate Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon's South Korean passport.
  • A US court has ordered Kwon to comply with subpoenas from the SEC regarding the sale of potential unregistered securities. 
  • The SEC sought information on a trading network built on the Terra ecosystem that offered customers tokens closely tracking the price of some of the largest U.S.-listed companies like Apple Inc AAPL and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.
  • A U.S. class-action lawsuit alleged Kwon and his company were selling unregistered securities and misleading investors by "repeatedly touting the stability of UST." 
  • Bitcoin price plunged below $20,000 for the first time since November 2020 and is about 70% below the November 2021 high. 
  • The terraUSD stablecoin, launched in 2020, was at a steady value of $1. However, its dollar peg broke in May.
  • Photo via Company
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