US Bid for Do Kwon Extradition Boosted by Montenegro Court Ruling: Crypto in DC

Se Young Lee, Bloomberg News

, Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Montenegro’s Supreme Court overturned earlier decisions to extradite Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon to South Korea, boosting US efforts to try the former crypto mogul for fraud charges related to the collapse of TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022.

Kwon has been held in Montenegro following an arrest in March 2023 for traveling on a fake passport. His lawyers have fought for extradition to South Korea, which imposes weaker penalties for white-collar crimes compared with the US.

Montenegro’s Supreme Court said the country’s justice minister will eventually decide where to hand Kwon over to after courts determine whether conditions for extradition are met. A person close to the matter told Bloomberg in late February the government intends to approve extradition to the US.

A jury found Kwon and Terraform liable for fraud in a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the company’s 2022 collapse.

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