[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The passport invalidation measure requested by the prosecution to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding Terraform Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyung, who is known to be staying overseas, is expected to be implemented soon.
On the 5th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on its website that the "Passport Return Order Notification Delivery Failure" for CEO Kwon had been posted.
Earlier, the Financial Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team (Head Dan Sung-han) of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month on the 15th to invalidate the passports of CEO Kwon and five others, including Terraform Labs employee Han Mo.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a passport return order to CEO Kwon and also 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 may order the return of passports for those staying abroad.
The passport return order notification is sent twice to the domestic address reported at the time of passport application. If the notification is not delivered, a "Delivery Failure" notice is posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. If the passport is not returned to an overseas diplomatic mission within 14 days from the date of posting, the currently used passport automatically becomes invalid.
Meanwhile, the prosecution is focusing on securing CEO Kwon’s custody by issuing a red notice through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), and has additionally frozen virtual assets worth 95 billion won, including Bitcoin, which CEO Kwon is suspected to have attempted to conceal, in two separate instances.
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