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Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

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Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#121

Post by arcticbull »

soulofmischief wrote: post #91
arcticbull wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, trust me, I've been following very closely too since about 2017. I think these folks are S tier. Not that there's not a ton more. It's hard to point to someone who did more damage to the space than Kwon in terms of sheer notional value and confidence destruction. I mostly follow this space for the drama and crime so I'm pretty up to date on the, er, personalities involved.

It's great you've taken an interest, but crypto has been around for much longer than 2017 and the lunacy traces back way further.

Of course, I've dug through the history. There's some really good stuff in the early days, the pirateat40 / Trendon Shavers scam is a classic. I wasn't there for it, of course, before my time. Learning about the history of the space is super fun though, especially when it has the collective memory of a goldfish :)

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#122

Post by kijin »

phphphphp wrote: post #114
kijin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The South Korean justice system is notoriously lenient on white-collar crime, and it's exceedingly rare even for violent criminals to be murdered in a Korean prison. The popular perception is that you can spend a couple of years in prison and enjoy your ill-gotten gains for the rest of your life with no further repercussions, provided you've hidden your money well enough. Guess what, the whole point of crypto is that…

So why didn’t he hand himself in? He’s been on the run since last year, he has had numerous opportunities to hand himself in before being arrested in Montenegro.

He probably believed he could have his cake and eat it too. Turns out he's not as clever as he thought. Now the only thing he has some amount of control over is which jurisdiction he will be handed over to.

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#123

Post by jcranmer »

hackernewds wrote: post #55
notch898a wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weev went to transnistria, stayed the 1 year it takes to get the passport, and then somehow is living in Ukraine off that passport despite the fact it isn't even recognized by Ukraine. There's also several other 'microstates' that recognize Transnistria's passport, so presumably once you have it you can stay in one of those places. If a fugitive doesn't mind living in a bumfuck mountain or desert with nothing but a c…

Not gonna lie, I thought Transnistria was a fictional place based on a play of words on "transit". What is it?

Transnistria is a sliver of Moldova that declared itself independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It's one of the tiny unrecognized statelets that's almost entirely propped up by the Russian government as a way of maintaining frozen conflicts.

(I really do mean sliver: it's 20 miles wide at its widest point; even The Gambia--a country which exists along the shores of the river of the same name--manages to get wider).

The conflict gained a resurgence of relevance in the past year after the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine, over fears that the Russian military might attempt to launch an invasion axis from Transnistria, or at least seek to establish a continuous corridor from Transnistria to Russia. And even more recently, the Moldovan governmental instability has also fueled fears that Russia might try to use Transnistria as leverage in Moldova.

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#124

Post by paulpauper »

polygamous_bat wrote: post #48
arcticbull wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Justin Sun and Do Kwon are [edit for clarity: among] the worst of the space, so IMO, this represents a crackdown on scammers not on the ecosystem. Everyone should like this, even me :)

> Justin Sun and Do Kwon are the worst of the space... Among the worst, I would say; the other three top spots go to Sam Bankman Fried of FTX, Changpeng Zhao of Binance, and whatever specter is running Tether.

Michael Saylor , Cathie Wood, Balaji, and Chamath, should also be included. The people with huge platforms who promote crypto are as culpable as the exchanges that sell it.

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#125

Post by [deleted] »

hackernewds wrote: post #55
notch898a wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weev went to transnistria, stayed the 1 year it takes to get the passport, and then somehow is living in Ukraine off that passport despite the fact it isn't even recognized by Ukraine. There's also several other 'microstates' that recognize Transnistria's passport, so presumably once you have it you can stay in one of those places. If a fugitive doesn't mind living in a bumfuck mountain or desert with nothing but a c…

Not gonna lie, I thought Transnistria was a fictional place based on a play of words on "transit". What is it?

[deleted]

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#126

Post by vkou »

kijin wrote: post #80
phphphphp wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’ll be watching his back in prison, he’s got access to billions of dollars — or, at least, is perceived to. He has wronged a lot of people, too. Also, prison is a one way street: if he stays on the run, and some day things do get to the point where he would feel safer in prison, he could hand himself in. Once he’s in prison, he has no choice left.

The South Korean justice system is notoriously lenient on white-collar crime, and it's exceedingly rare even for violent criminals to be murdered in a Korean prison. The popular perception is that you can spend a couple of years in prison and enjoy your ill-gotten gains for the rest of your life with no further repercussions, provided you've hidden your money well enough. Guess what, the whole point of crypto is that…

> The South Korean justice system is notoriously lenient on white-collar crime,

Then we should pray he gets extradited somewhere else.

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#127

Post by vkou »

zoklet-enjoyer wrote: post #79
jamiek88 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ross literally hired hitmen to kill someone who owed him money. The fact that he didn’t know it was an undercover agent (pro tip if you hire a hit man and you aren’t customarily in ‘that life’ you are always hiring an undercover agent) is irrelevant. He still required and received ‘proof’ of the deed, a photo of the aftermath, staged of course. He was even cold blooded with the ‘collateral damage’ of the intended vic…

If that actually happened, why didn't they prosecute him for it?

Because the other stuff he did was also enough to put him away forever.

The better question is: "Why are people so insistant on whitewashing him?" Do they not think that hiring a contract killer is, like, no big deal? Do they regularly pretend to hire them? Are they just closing ranks around him because they think he's part of their in-tribe?

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#129

Post by kijin »

nbar1 wrote: post #90
kijin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The South Korean justice system is notoriously lenient on white-collar crime, and it's exceedingly rare even for violent criminals to be murdered in a Korean prison. The popular perception is that you can spend a couple of years in prison and enjoy your ill-gotten gains for the rest of your life with no further repercussions, provided you've hidden your money well enough. Guess what, the whole point of crypto is that…

> the whole point of crypto is that it's easy to hide. This couldn't be further from the truth and shows how the majority of people do not understand the benefits that crypto offers.

Compared to bank accounts, real estate, and offshore corporations, it is certainly easier to hide your crypto (or rather, hide the fact that it's your crypto) if you know what you're doing. Heck, even the word "crypto" means "hidden".

Do Kwon might not be any good at sneaking though airports, but he certainly knows his way around the crypto scene. He has had plenty of time to launder his coins. In fact, he's probably had more time to plan and execute an exit scheme than any of the other crooks who got busted lately. So I wouldn't underestimate how well he has hidden his embezzled billions.

Re: Do Kwon arrested in Montenegro: Interior Minister

#130

Post by Scoundreller »

janmo wrote: post #99
Scoundreller wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only thing about a land border between Serbia and Montenegro is that they might get even more suspicious than an airport about WhyTF a random Korean is there.

You can just hike your way around the border

Problem is leaving at the airport, if they check and see your entry isn’t registered anywhere. Still could work if you plan on staying forever, hiking out, or flying private because only normies can do bad things and need to have their movements subject to scrutiny.
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