The Balkan nation of Montenegro has now reportedly made the decision to surrender one of the most notorious figures in the crypto industry to U.S. authorities. As a result, he is expected to face criminal charges in New York.
The justice ministry of Montenegro announced on Friday that Do Kwon, whose TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies collapsed in a $40 billion catastrophe in 2022, should be extradited to the United States rather than his native South Korea.
The decision by Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Božović concludes over a year and a half of legal disputes regarding Kwon’s extradition.
Since his detention in Montenegro last year, the disgraced crypto entrepreneur has been the subject of prosecution in the justice systems of both the United States and South Korea.
In an effort to secure Kwon’s transfer to South Korea, his local attorneys submitted a series of appeals, asserting that he desired to be in closer proximity to his family.
According to legal authorities in both countries, Kwon is expected to receive a more severe prison sentence in the United States than in South Korea if he is convicted.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office that is currently prosecuting Kwon is the same office that recently secured a conviction and a 25-year prison sentence for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Kwon, a former brash entrepreneur whose swagger and social media omnipresence made him a crypto celebrity, went into hiding in the Balkans after the TerraUSD-Luna crash.
He was struck with multiple lawsuits and investigations. The 33-year-old is currently being charged with eight criminal counts of fraud by federal prosecutors in New York. He has refuted allegations of deception.
In a New York courtroom, Kwon has already been defeated in a case that provides a glimpse of the potential course of the criminal case against him.
Kwon and his company, Terraform Labs, were held liable for securities fraud in a civil lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission by a New York jury in April.
Following the verdict, Terraform and Kwon reached an agreement to pay $4.5 billion in penalties, and the company announced that it would cease operations.
Kwon and Terraform were accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of fabricating information regarding the stability of TerraUSD, a stablecoin that is intended to preserve a value of $1.
Some of the same underlying accusations are addressed in the criminal case against Kwon.
However, federal prosecutors are required to establish his culpability beyond a reasonable doubt, a more stringent standard than the SEC was subjected to.
Kwon has been in custody in Montenegro since March 2023, when he was apprehended at the airport in the capital city of the country, Podgorica.
This detention concluded a months-long international manhunt. He was apprehended while attempting to board a private aircraft to Dubai with a fictitious Costa Rican passport.
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