Kwon Do-hyeong, who is being investigated in several countries for alleged fraud related to the collapse of the Terraform Labs cryptocurrency project he led, will have a court hearing on May 11 in Montenegro on charges of allegedly attempting to travel using a false passport, according to the court website in Podgorica, the country’s capital.
Kwon was arrested March 23 at the airport in Podgorica with Terraform Labs chief financial officer Han Chang-joon. They have both been detained in the country since. Kwon was under an Interpol red notice requesting his detention.
They reportedly were attempting to travel to Dubai and allegedly held several travel documents and identification papers under different names. Both Kwon and Han are South Korean nationals.
The Montenegrin court announced the indictment of Kwon and Han on April 21 and extended their detention due to flight risk.
Kwon is wanted in the U.S. and South Korea where prosecutors accuse him of fraud and several other charges related to the collapse of the Singapore-based US$40 billion Terra-Luna stablecoin and cryptocurrency project in May last year.
Kwon has denied all the charges against him. Terraform Labs has stated that South Korea’s investigation of Terra-Luna has become highly politicized and claims the accusations are baseless.
In a related development, Kwon’s lawyers in the U.S. asked a court in the Southern District of New York court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that accuses the Terraform Labs leader of fraud involving “crypto asset securities.”
Kwon lawyers said the Terra stablecoin is a currency and that the SEC’s assertion of securities regulations over digital assets is unlawful, Bloomberg reported Saturday citing the legal filing.
