Terra Probe Intensifies As S. Korea Crypto Exchanges In New Trouble

The Terra probe continues to bring trouble to the South Korean crypto ecosystem. Reports suggest that the country’s authorities took the investigation a step ahead on Wednesday with latest moves. The probe is currently ongoing over the fraud allegations on the Terraform Labs management.

Raids On South Korean Crypto Exchanges

According to reports, the prosecutors had earlier on Wednesday raided several cryptocurrency exchanges. As many as seven crypto exchanges, including some of the major ones, have been questioned on Wednesday. The searches, it is believed, are related to the fraud allegations on the Terra network collapse. At around 5 pm local time, the prosecutors began taking control of documents and other data sources from the companies.

The report mentioned that Upbit, one of the country’s major crypto exchanges, was among those raided by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office. Earlier this year in May, Terra investors accused Terra CEO Do Kwon of fraud to the tune of several billions with the collapse. Recently, LUNA Classic (LUNC) price increased heavily after Binance announced it will launch new perpetual contracts for the token.

Terra Probe Goes All Out On Korea Bigwigs

The probe by Korean prosecutors appears centered not just on the country’s crypto players but also some of the large commercial banks. According to a Bloomberg report, the authorities have also questioned banks for any links to potential fraud. The banks are questioned over the possibility of “money laundering or currency speculation using crypto assets.” Among the big local banks approached by the authorities are Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank, the report added.

“The regulator is examining whether laws on money laundering and foreign exchange trading were broken. Regulators have strengthened collaboration with the country’s prosecutors on the probe.”

According to a Shinhan Bank representative, a regulatory probe is under way while the the exact size of the transaction is yet to be known. Also, the prosecutors are also looking at the relation between the said transaction and local crypto exchanges. It appears that at the centre of the probe is whether there were any abnormal payments made to stakeholders abroad. Hence, the commercial banks naturally form an epicenter of search for abnormal international transactions around Terra.

Meanwhile, FatMan, who claimed to be an insider of Terra, said it would be interesting to see the probe’s developments. He said learning about Terraform Labs’ “links to exchanges over the next few months will be interesting.”

Anvesh reports major developments around crypto adoption and price analysis. Having been associated with the industry since 2016, Anvesh is a strong advocate of decentralized technologies. Follow Anvesh on Twitter at @AnveshReddyBTC and reach him out at [email protected]

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