Small investors become vigilante in hunting for the most wanted man of crypto

kang Hyung-Suks Trust in cryptocurrencies was shaken by the $ 40 billion collapse from Do Kwon's cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs, where he used to work in Seoul. Now he is looking for revenge.

In about 10 days, Kang flies to Dubai, the capital of the crypto -friendly United Arab Emirates, where he believes that Kwon is hiding. "Finding him could be easier than expected," said Kang.

The 26-year-old software engineer belongs to the VAT Restitution Group, an union of almost 4,400 crypto investors who tries to track down the Kwon sought in South Korea.

"I want to recruit other people for the search," said Kang. "The chance to catch him in Dubai is 50:50."

The international search for Kwon, a 31-year-old entrepreneur trained in Stanford, intensifies, while small investors are trying to recover from the devastating losses caused by the collapse of its terrausd and luna coins in May.

investors have submitted collecting lawsuits against Kwon in Singapore and the USA, while Interpol issued a red ad for him. South Korea is expected to withdraw its pass on Wednesday.

In an interview in the crypto podcast Unchained,

KWON claimed that the accusations against him were not "legitimate" and "politically motivated". He said he was complying with the document requirements of the South Korean public prosecutor and apologized to the victims of the collapse of his blockchain system.

he denied any misconduct, but refused to reveal his whereabouts, citing security concerns. His last known whereabouts at the end of April was Singapore, according to the South Korean authorities.

URG members share their findings about Kwon and his company about Discord, a social messaging platform, and search the Internet for information on his location. Members have proposed that Kwon could be in Dubai, Russia, Azerbaijan, the Seychelles or Mauritius.

"Dubai is crypto-friendly, very internationally (he would not be noticed) and has limited delivery contracts in force," wrote a member of the URG in a report dated September 28th. "It seems the best choice for the 3-5 to its hour time zone shift in the data."

URG includes members from all over the world. "His days are counted," said a top-of-a-base member with the nickname antithesis, who, as a 31-year-old American, introduced himself to Ivy League training. "We have people who are very, very close."

He claimed that his group did "a lot" work to track down Kwon. "Of course I would not respond to details because the publication of our methods would make them ineffective. However, I think we do more than everyone else."

Antithesis who said that he had lost a large part of his life savings worth several hundred thousand dollars by bet on terrausd, described the experience as "devastating".

"The entire schedule of my life planning was turned upside down and thrown back by many years. The additional stress has probably also shortened my lifespan by a few years," he said.

Another Urg member with the nickname HkTrader, who said that he had worked for a fintech company with headquarters in Hong Kong and powers his savings on Terrausd, spent a month to organize a class action in Singapore against Kwon, and discovered his place of residence in the country by a hired private detective.

"We had felt [Him] pretty well when he was in Singapore," he said, adding that his group lost sight of Kwon after leaving the city state.

He is skeptical whether Interpol can find Kwon. "You know how Interpol works. It is up to the host country to act," he said.

But even if Kwon was arrested and delivered to South Korea, according to experts, it would not be easy to condemn and punish him for financial fraud or violation of capital market rules, since there is uncertainty as to whether crypto is subject to securities law.

"I wonder how effective the legal steps against him could be, given the lack of a legal basis for punishing crypto players," said Choi Hwa-in, a crypto expert in Seoul.

"This would only put a strain on the crypto market, pull its value down and investors even more harm."

This month, a South Korean court rejected the public prosecutor's application to issue an arrest warrant against Kwon's close employees who led the business activities of Terraform Labs, and questioned whether Terrausd and Luna were qualified as investment papers according to the country's capital market law.

Terraform Labs said that the company would continue to communicate with the authorities, but accused the South Korean public prosecutor of spoken to the press.

"The latest developments again confirm that Terraform Labs and its interest groups in South Korea are still exposed to a highly politicized and unpredictable legal environment," said the company.

"The facts are on our side and we look forward to the fact that the truth will come to light in the coming months."