Montenegro’s Ministry of Justice announced on December 27 that Minister Bojan Bozovic had ordered the extradition of Korean digital currency tycoon Do Kwon to the US to face trial for fraud, according to Reuters.
Do Kwon was escorted to court in Podgorica (Montenegro) in March
Do Kwon (33 years old) is the co-founder of the startup Terraform Labs that created TerraUSD, a stablecoin designed to maintain price stability with the USD. This currency collapsed in May 2022, causing the cryptocurrency market to stagger, one of the biggest disasters in digital currency history.
Kwon and Terraform Labs were sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February 2023 regarding the digital currencies TerraUSD and Luna. The agency believes that these currencies caused about $40 billion in losses to the digital currency market.
The SEC said that Terraform Labs and Mr. Kwon misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD and about how a popular mobile payment app in South Korea used Terraform’s currency to process transactions.
Do Kwon was arrested in March 2023 while trying to escape Motenegro. He denies wrongdoing but is facing criminal charges in the US.
South Korea also wanted Kwon on charges of fraud and tax evasion, according to Yonhap. However, after the Supreme Court of Montenegro ruled that all conditions for extradition to the US had been completed, Minister Bozovic signed an order to extradite this person to the US and refused the request from South Korea.
Do Kwon’s lawyers argued that Montenegro’s decision contravened the European extradition convention and announced that they would sue the Montenegrin Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, according to AFP.
