Montenegro Court Orders Extradition of Do Kwon to U.S. in Connection with TerraUSD Collapse
The Wall Street Journal recently reported a significant development on February 22, 2024, regarding the extradition ruling of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon by the court in Montenegro. The court has decided that Kwon should be extradited to the U.S. to face trial on fraud charges, rejecting his native South Korea as the location for extradition.
The High Court in Podgorica, Montenegro, has ruled that Kwon must be extradited to the U.S., with a three-day appeal period granted to his legal team. This decision comes after Kwon’s arrest in March 2023 at the Podgorica airport while trying to board a private jet to Dubai using a counterfeit Costa Rican passport.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Kwon with eight criminal counts of fraud, accusing him of deceiving investors and providing false information about the stability of TerraUSD. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed a civil case against Kwon and Terraform Labs for securities fraud related to the collapse.
Apart from the U.S. charges, South Korean prosecutors have been seeking Kwon for alleged violations of the country’s capital markets laws. Kwon has had an arrest warrant in South Korea since September 2022.
The decision of the Montenegrin court paves the way for Kwon to face the SEC’s fraud lawsuit, with the trial scheduled to begin on March 25.
In a related development on February 5, former CFO of Terraform Labs, Han Chang-joon, was also extradited to South Korea by Montenegrin authorities alongside Do Kwon. They had been arrested in March 2023 and received a four-month sentence in Montenegro. Han Chang-joon now faces the possibility of life imprisonment in South Korea.
Both the U.S. and South Korea are pursuing Kwon’s prosecution for charges related to the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna in May 2022, which resulted in a massive $40 billion loss in the cryptocurrency market, affecting investors and traders worldwide. Kwon, the creator of TerraUSD and Luna, is facing eight criminal counts of fraud, as outlined by federal prosecutors in New York.
Tags: Crypto Regulations