Daniel Shin’s Home Raided by South Korean Authorities
Daniel Shin, the co-founder of Terra Labs, was the subject of attention on Wednesday, July 20, as his home was invaded by prosecutors, according to a news media report.
The report said the raid came about due to investigators believing the crash of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to the market crash of May, was due to fraud on the part of the executives of the crypto company.
In May, UST collapsed. It was supposed to hold its peg against the United States Dollar (USD), like Tether (USDT), Circle's USDC, and Binance USD (BUSD), which continue to hover around $1.
This led to several exchanges and hedge funds falling victim to overexposure. Due to the impact of the crash in Terra, investors who poured liquidity into LUNA, the native asset of the Terra ecosystem, filed a complaint against co-founder Do Kwon and Terraform Labs.
Many of the investors' alleged that fraud and extensive violations of securities laws in the country led to them suffering irrecoverable losses.
A series of lawsuits have followed for other projects, with the high-profile case being the suing of self-proclaimed DogeFather Elon Musk by a Dogecoin investor for billions of dollars.
Why is Daniel Shin being targeted?
As an executive of Terra Labs, he is in a better position to know the activities that preceded the collapse of one of the most vibrant ecosystems in the crypto finance industry than many. Terra Labs had more than $30 billion in total value locked (TVL) before the market downturn, per DeFiLlama.
In the early days of the week, authorities raided local cryptocurrency exchanges including Upbit and Bithumb.
In June, a travel ban was placed on many stakeholders, including former staff members of Terraform Labs.
Aside from Shin, co-founder Do Kwon is alleged to have evaded the paying of taxes and the government continues to investigate the crypto executive. The two heads of the crypto firm are residents of Singapore, but it is unclear if they live there on a full-time basis.
With that said, the revival of Terra (LUNA) continues to see above-average liquidity. As of writing, LUNA was exchanging hands for $1.93 and had a trading volume of approximately $58.29 million, per data from CoinMarketCap..
Author: Brendan Beeken
Moni Talks Founder and Chairman Brendan Beeken is an entrepreneur, commercial strategist, investor, and philanthropist. He writes on a wide range of subjects, including cryptocurrency, decentralised finance, blockchain, business advice, and professional wellbeing, for news and business websites, as well as Latest Moni and his personal site, brendanbeeken.com. Brendan draws from his own research and more than two decades of personal experience in business to offer a unique insight, perspective, and commentary on diverse subjects. He is passionate about making the cryptocurrency space more accessible and encouraging safer and more responsible trading and investing. Brendan's LinkTree is https://linktr.ee/brendanbeeken.