SEOUL - A delegation of South Korean officials travelled to Serbia last week to seek help in the hunt for crypto fugitive Do Kwon.

The prosecutors’ office in Seoul said on Tuesday that reports that one of its team visited the Balkan nation along with a senior Justice Ministry official “aren’t false”.

Serbia in December emerged as a potential location for Kwon, the fallen 31-year-old entrepreneur facing charges in his native South Korea over the US$60 billion (S$79.5 billion) wipe-out of digital assets that he created.

Kwon developed the TerraUSD stablecoin, which was meant to have a constant US$1 value via a mix of algorithms and trader incentives involving a sister token, Luna.

The edifice blew up in May 2022, exacerbating a US$2 trillion crypto market rout and contributing to the downfall of a range of digital asset companies.

Kwon’s location became unclear after the authorities in September 2022 issued a warrant for his arrest on allegations including breaches of capital markets law.

South Korea has stripped him of his passport and said that Kwon is the subject of an Interpol red notice.

Officials in 2022 indicated that Kwon had flown to Dubai, likely as a stopover to destinations unknown after exiting Singapore, where his Terraform Labs project had a base.

He resurfaced on Twitter a few days ago after a weeks-long absence that stoked speculation about his whereabouts.

Kwon tweeted that he has “stolen no money and never had ‘secret cashouts’.”

He has previously denied wrongdoing.

The prosecutors’ office and the Justice Ministry on Tuesday declined to comment on Kwon’s precise location. BLOOMBERG