Montenegro Court approves extradition of Terra creator to Korea or US

The Department of Justice will decide which country the businessman will be extradited to

24.11.2023 - 13:57

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2 min

What’s new? The court in the Montenegrin city of Podgorica, where Terra blockchain creator Do Kwon was serving a 4-month prison sentence for passport forgery, approved the businessman’s extradition to Korea or the United States. Kwon faces charges of fraud and market manipulation in both countries. The final decision on which country Kwon will be extradited to for proceedings will be made by the Montenegrin Justice Ministry at a later date.

Court ruling

What else is known? Kwon was the CEO of Terraform Labs (TFL), a developer company that created the Terra blockchain ecosystem with the native token LUNA and the algorithmic stablecoin UST. In May last year, the exchange rates of coins collapsed to zero, bringing billions of dollars in losses to investors.

For several months after the collapse, Kwon was on the run, being included in the Interpol database, until he was detained with an assistant in Podgorica while trying to fly to Dubai using fake passports. For this, both received 4 months in prison.

In addition to the authorities, investor groups from Korea, the US, and Singapore have filed lawsuits alleging fraud against Kwon. Korean and US officials are also seeking to freeze the company’s assets in overseas bank accounts. Assets continue to be withdrawn from Kwon’s personal wallet to unknown addresses despite his arrest.

In June, analysts found that the company continued to store cryptocurrencies despite the statement that it had spent all funds to stabilize the exchange rates of its coins.

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