Montenegro will extradite to the United States the South Korean Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Lab and known as “the king of cryptocurrencies”, who was wanted for fraud by both the United States and South Korea, the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice reported this Friday in a release.
“The majority of the criteria favor the request for extradition to the United States,” the note states.
Consequently, the Montenegrin Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, made the decision to authorize the extradition to the United States, while rejecting the surrender of Do Kwon to his country, he adds.
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The step taken now by the minister seems to put an end to a process in which the Montenegrin courts have authorized and revoked more than once the extradition of Do Kwon, detained in Podgorica a year and nine months ago.
Both the United States and South Korea accuse him of crimes related to cryptocurrency frauds estimated to be worth at least $40 billion.
That figure represents the damage caused to investors on the Terra USD platform, known for its Terra coin and the associated Luna cryptocurrency, both created by Terraform Labs, which collapsed in May 2022.
In its statement, the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice affirms that it made the decision to grant the United States request after evaluating all the facts, such as the seriousness of the crimes, the place of their commission or the order of presentation of the requests.
Do Kwon, 33, was arrested on March 23, 2023 at Podgorica airport as he was preparing to leave for Dubai on a private plane.
He was carrying false documents from Costa Rica and Belgium, which is why he was sentenced in Montenegro to four months in prison for falsifying travel documents.
The South Korean justice system accuses him of having created a pyramid scheme and has claimed him since September 2022 on suspicion of fraud.
In February 2024, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Terraform Labs and its CEO and main shareholder, Do Kwon, of the sudden fall of its TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies in May 2022.
The SEC alleges that Do Kwon and Terraform orchestrated a multimillion-dollar fraud that partially took place in the United States between 2018 and 2022, when TerraUSD collapsed.
According to Radio Free Europe, Do Kwon’s lawyers in Montenegro criticized the decision of the Montenegrin Justice, considering that it violates their client’s fundamental right to a legal remedy and the review of a “clearly illegal decision.”
With information from EFE
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