Dec 16th 2022

South Korean prosecutors have suffered a blow in their bid to arrest the masterminds of the Terra ecosystem – after a court turned down a request for the arrest of the Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin. The news was met with much glee from Shin’s fellow co-founder Do Kwon, who celebrated the development on social media.

OBS reported that the arrest warrant request was turned down by Hong Jin-pyo, the Chief Justice in charge of warrants at the Seoul Southern District Court. Hong was quoted as stating that while the “nature of the crimes” Shin had been accused of was “very serious,” it was “difficult to see the necessity and significance” of issuing an arrest warrant at this time.

The court also turned down a number of requests for the arrest of other early-stage Terra investors, as well as four key network developers. The prosecution had hoped to arrest Shin and the others on fraud-related charges.

Shin, known also by his Korean name Shin Hyun-Seong, is also the former CEO of Chai Corporation, a payments company that has also been raided by prosecutors as part of the probe into whether Terraform sought to defraud its investors.

Groups of investors have also launched civil proceedings against Kwon, Shin, and Terraform.