US Authorities Take Terraform Labs Founder
Montenegro extradited Do Kwon to the US on December 31 to stand prosecution for Terraform Labs' 2022 failure. On Tuesday morning, the interior ministry concluded the extradition process, according to The Korean Herald.
The report said that Do Kwon was “handed to the competent law enforcement authorities of the United States of America and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)” for “criminal proceedings in the US for crimes of conspiracy to commit fraud.”
Last Monday, Montenegro's Justice Minister Bojan Božović issued an order for Do Kwon's extradition to the US, rejecting South Korea's plea.
According to local press, “The Department of Justice has considered all the facts and circumstances and assessed criteria” and decided to extradite the Terraform Labs co-founder to the US.
Since most of the law's criteria support the competent authorities of the United States of America's extradition request, the Minister of Justice has issued a decision allowing Kwon Do Hyeong's extradition to the US while refusing extradition to Korea.
Do Kwon's Montenegrin attorneys blasted the Minister of Justice's decision and said they will “appeal to the country's constitutional court and to the European Court of Human Rights.”
Do Kwon's Montenegro Tale
Montenegro held the South Korean entrepreneur for nearly a year and a half. He and Terraform Lab's former finance officer Han Chang-joon were arrested in March 2023 for trying to use fake travel papers at Podgorica airport.
His arrest followed months of leaving his native country and Singapore before Terraform Labs went bankrupt. The Federal Reserve Board said that the business lost “around $50 billion worth of the network’s two asset offerings, TerraUSD (UST) and Luna (LUNA), in the span of a week,” one of the greatest crypto crashes.
Do Kwon was sentenced to four months in Montenegro and given two months at the US and South Korean request.
