The devastating losses caused by Terra’s collapse in May and seemingly futile attempts by law enforcement agencies to take Do Kwon to court prompted UST and Luna investors to take justice into their own hands.
According to the October 19 report from Financial Times, UST crash victims turned vigilantes are now trying to track down Do Kwon, exchanging clues and insights on a Discord server dubbed UST Restitution Group. Formed on May 16, USG was initially a place to coordinate class action lawsuits against Kwon but now seems to have changed focus to capturing him first.
The whereabouts of Terraform Labs CEO have remained unknown for quite some time. At first, it was believed that he was in Singapore, but local police later stated that he left the city-state. URG members suggested that Kwon could be in Azerbaijan, Russia, Mauritius, Seychelles, or even on a yacht.
However, most tend to think that Do Kwon is hiding in Dubai, a crypto-friendly capital of the United Arab Emirates.
“Dubai is friendly to crypto, very international (he would not stand out), and has limited extradition treaties in place. It would seem like the best fit for the 3-5 hour timezone shift apparent in the data,” one URG member wrote, quoted by FT.
Another community member and Terraform Labs former employee, Kan Hyung-suk, will soon be flying to Dubai in attempts to locate Do Kwon in an over three-million city all by himself.
“Finding it may be easier than thought,” Kan told FT. “There’s a 50-50 chance of getting him in Dubai.”
However, he may be too late — according to Forkast, who has reached out to South Korean prosecutors, Do Kwon indeed left Singapore and landed in Dubai, but no records have been found of his UAE entry at the airport, which suggests that the city was just a stopover before leaving for the third country.
Do Kwon’s travel document will be valid for two more weeks, Forkast said, citing the South Korean ministry of foreign affairs. Several media outlets recently reported that his passport expires on October 19, two weeks after authorities requested him to return it.
“I think the initial [media report] was mistaken,” the ministry’s official said. “It is not two weeks from the notice, it is two weeks from the termination of the notice,” they explained.
Read also: The global manhunt for Terra’s Do Kwon continues in Serbia
However, in his recent interview with Laura Shin, a host of the Unchained podcast and author of “The Cryptopians,” Do Kwon said that he wasn’t concerned about the cancellation of his travel document. “I’m not using it anyway … So I can’t see how that makes a difference to me,” he said but refused to clarify whether he holds some other passport.
Do Kwon also maintained that he wasn’t on the run, but said that he won’t disclose his locations due to safety reasons.
"The main reason I don't want to talk about my location to the media is because when the crash happened in May, there were lots of situations where personal security was threatened. For instance, people broke into my apartment building — even multiple cases where that was televised across my home in South Korea as well as my home in Singapore," he said.
