Montenegrin court denies $428 000 bail to Do Kwon

In this, he had already remitted the entire amount of bail to the court of first instance

25.05.2023 - 16:25

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3 min

What’s new? Montenegro’s Supreme Court has denied releasing Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs (TFL), and his assistant, Han Chang-joon, on bail of €400 000 ($428 000) each. On May 12, the court of first instance agreed to release them, but the decision was appealed by the Podgorica District Prosecutor’s Office. However, on May 17, the bank account of the court of first instance already received the full amount of bail from the defendants, but now the public authority will review its decision in light of the ruling of the Supreme Court. The next hearing will be held on June 16.

Decision of the Supreme Court of Montenegro

How did events develop? Kwon and his assistant are accused of document forgery and were detained at Podgorica airport on March 23 with fake passports while trying to fly to Dubai. Kwon had been on the run since last year when the collapse of his Terra blockchain ecosystem in May caused tens of billions of dollars in losses for investors around the world.

After Kwon left Singapore in September, as reported by local authorities, there was no word on his whereabouts; victims later banded together to search for the businessman on their own. In addition, warrants for Kwon’s arrest were issued by Interpol and South Korea, of which he is a citizen.

Class-action lawsuits against TFL and Kwon were filed by investors from South Korea, the United States, and Singapore. The authorities in all three countries have also launched investigations into the incident. Separately, the US Attorney’s Office and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Kwon of fraud.

The SEC and Korea also accusedKwon of withdrawing 10 000 bitcoins from his own project and asked Swiss crypto bank Sygnum to freezethose funds. The authorities in both countries have expressed their intention to have Kwon extradited for trial in their jurisdictions. In response, the Montenegrin authorities explained that the matter could be considered only after a local trial and Kwon’s possible serving of a sentence for forgery.

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