Do Kwon To Be Extradited To South Korea After Montenegro Rejects US Bid

After a drawn-out legal battle spanning over 16 months, the Montenegrin Court of Appeal has finally ruled that cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon will be extradited to his home country of South Korea, rejecting a parallel extradition request from the United States.

Do Kwon One Step Closer To Facing Trial In South Korea

Do Kwon, the co-founder of the now-collapsed blockchain protocol Terraform Labs, has been at the center of an international crackdown since the implosion of his company’s Luna and TerraUSD cryptocurrencies wiped out an estimated $40 billion in investor funds. This prompted both South Korean and US authorities to seek to bring Kwon to justice, accusing him of orchestrating a massive fraud.

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The Montenegrin court’s decision, announced on August 1, marks a victory for South Korean prosecutors, who have been pursuing Kwon since he went on the run in September 2022. It has now concluded a legal saga that has played out in the Balkan country since Kwon’s arrest at Podgorica airport in March 2023.

According to the local media reports, the judge overseeing the case ruled that South Korea’s extradition request took precedence over the American one. The reason for this is that South Korea’s request was submitted first, in line with Montenegro’s existing extradition treaty with South Korea, which takes precedence over its agreement with the United States.

“This is the second legally binding court decision on the extradition of Do Kwon to South Korea,” explained Do Kwon’s lawyer, Goran Rodić, in a statement. “It is fully in accordance with the law and international treaties that regulate the extradition of persons wanted for criminal prosecution or serving a sentence.”

The ruling comes after Do Kwon and his business partner, Chang Joon, were sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro for attempting to flee the country using forged passports. After serving their sentences, Kwon was placed in a shelter for foreigners near the capital, Podgorica, where he has been awaiting the outcome of the extradition proceedings. Chang Joon, on the other hand, was successfully extradited to South Korea.

Mounting Legal Woes

Do Kwon’s legal troubles, however, extend far beyond Montenegro. In April, Bitcoinist reported that a jury in New York declared Kwon and Terraform Labs liable for civil fraud, agreeing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they had deceived investors. The company subsequently agreed to pay a $4.5 billion settlement with the SEC.

Despite this civil settlement, the US government remained insistent in its demand that Montenegro extradite Kwon and prosecute him criminally for his misdeeds in the crypto market. However, this latest ruling by the Montenegrin Supreme Court represents a setback to US authorities’ expectations. 

At the time of writing, the blockchain’s native token Luna Classic (LUNC) is trading at $0.00007379, down more than 9% in the last 24 hours. Over longer time frames, the token is also down 15% and 8% over the fourteen and thirty day periods, respectively. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com