'Tera·Luna Incident' Kwon Do-hyung, Passport Invalidated... Illegal Immigrant Status from Today

Passport must be returned within 14 days after Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement
Failure to return results in passport invalidation... Subject to deportation

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] As the passport of Terraform Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyung, who is known to be staying abroad, has expired, there is a high possibility that his status will change to that of an illegal immigrant. If he is classified as an illegal immigrant, he will be subject to deportation, which is expected to accelerate efforts to secure Kwon's custody.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on its website on the 5th, at the request of the prosecution, that the 'Notice of Passport Surrender Order Delivery Failure' regarding CEO Kwon had been posted.

Earlier, the Financial Securities Crime Joint Investigation Unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Head Dan Sung-han) requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month on the 15th to invalidate the passports of CEO Kwon and four other Terraform Labs employees, including Mr. Han.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a passport surrender order to CEO Kwon and restricted the issuance of a new passport. According to the Passport Act, when an arrest warrant or detention warrant is issued, the Minister of Foreign Affairs can order the surrender of the passport of a person staying abroad.

The passport surrender order notice is sent twice to the domestic address reported at the time of passport application, and if the notice is not delivered, a 'Delivery Failure' announcement is posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. If the passport is not surrendered to an overseas diplomatic mission within 14 days from the date of the announcement, the currently used passport automatically becomes invalid.

Accordingly, CEO Kwon's passport expired on the 19th. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, "Since this is related to an investigation, we cannot disclose whether CEO Kwon has surrendered his passport," but since it is highly likely that Kwon has not surrendered his passport, he is likely to be classified as an illegal immigrant and subject to deportation.

So far, CEO Kwon has only expressed his position through social networking services (SNS) and has been strictly silent about his whereabouts.

The prosecution conducted a search of Terraform Labs' office at the end of June and imposed a travel ban on executives and employees, narrowing the investigation net around CEO Kwon. However, even if Kwon's custody is secured, the overall investigation situation remains unclear.

Recently, the court rejected the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant for Mr. Yoo, head of Terraform Labs' operations and a close associate of CEO Kwon, making it uncertain whether charges of violating the Capital Markets Act will be applied. On the 6th, Hong Jin-pyo, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Southern District Court, dismissed the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant against Mr. Yoo on charges including fraud, breach of trust, and violation of the Capital Markets Act, stating that "there appears to be room for legal dispute regarding whether Luna Coin is an investment contract security under the Capital Markets Act."

Separately, the prosecution has issued a red notice through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and additionally froze 95 billion won worth of virtual assets, including Bitcoin, which CEO Kwon is suspected of attempting to conceal, in two separate instances.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.