Terra Fraudster Do Kwon To Be Extradited To South Korea As Appellate Court Rejects US Request

The legal drama in Montenegro over Terraform Labs co-founder and fraudster Do Kwon isn’t over just yet.

On August 1, Montenegro’s Appellate Court upheld a ruling to extradite Kwon to South Korea, rejecting a request to deport him to the United States instead.

The recent ruling comes after months of back-and-forth between Kwon’s legal team, courts, and prosecutors on whether to send him to the United States to face charges tied to the spectacular collapse of the Terra/LUNA ecosystem in May 2022 or South Korea.

Kwon’s Extradition Battle Takes A Fresh Turn

The court indicated in a statement that there was no motion to appeal its ruling, and the disgraced crypto mogul’s extradition to his native South Korea will be fast-tracked.

Do Kwon’s attorney, Goran Rodic, informed Bloomberg that Montenegro will organize the repatriation with help from Interpol, expressing hope it would happen “as soon as possible.” 

The Terra creator and his legal team have reportedly preferred South Korea, where he faces a maximum sentence of 40 years for financial crimes. Contrarily, the United States adheres to a doctrine where the court can impose consecutive sentences for each crime for which a defendant is found guilty.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Terraform Labs and Kwon in February 2023 over the algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD (UST), which unraveled in spring 2022, triggering over $40 billion in investor losses.

In June, the SEC and Terraform reached a $4.47 billion settlement, which included $3.58 billion in disgorgement fines, a $420 million civil penalty, and $467 million in interest payments on the fines. The settlement terms bar Kwon from becoming a director or officer of any public company.

Kwon was apprehended in Montenegro’s capital last March and detained at Podgorica Airport alongside Terra’s former CFO Hang Chang-joon while trying to board a flight to Dubai using falsified Costa Rica passports.

Montenegro PM’s Ties With Terraform Labs Exposed

Following the legal settlement between Terraform Labs and the SEC, Montenegrin media outlet Vijesti uncovered that the current prime minister, Milojko Spajić, was an early investor in Terraform.

According to Vijesti, Spajić reportedly invested $75,000 to acquire 750,000 Terra (LUNA) tokens in April 2018, ranking him 16th among the early investors days before Terraform Labs was even registered as a business entity in Singapore.

Spajic strongly refuted these claims, saying Das Capital SG, a firm he worked at for three years before becoming the prime minister, made the said investment.