Cryptocurrency tycoon arrested in Montenegro faces extradition to South Korea

2024-03-07 18:08:01

POGDORICA, Montenegro (AP) — A Montenegrin court decided Thursday that cryptocurrency tycoon Do Kwon must be handed over to his native South Korea, in the latest twist to the legal proceedings that followed the arrest of the Terraform Labs founder in the Balkan nation last year.

The Supreme Court issued the ruling days following an appeals court overturned its earlier ruling to extradite Kwon to the United States.

Kwon, 32, was apprehended by an international arrest warrant in connection with a $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, which devastated retail investors around the world. South Korea and the United States had requested Kwon’s extradition from Montenegro.

Last month, Montenegro’s Supreme Court decided to hand Kwon over to the United States, but the Court of Appeals overturned the decision and ordered the lower court to repeat the process. In a statement, the Court of Appeals cited procedural issues over who was the first to file a request, the United States or South Korea.

The Supreme Court’s most recent decision can be appealed once more, said spokeswoman Marija Raković. It is not known when the final ruling will be issued. Kwon is also serving a four-year prison sentence in Montenegro for using a fake passport.

Kwon, known as “the king of cryptocurrencies,” is wanted in the United States, where he was accused of fraud by federal prosecutors in New York. South Korean prosecutors have also sought his extradition.

Kwon and another South Korean were arrested at Montenegro’s Podgorica airport on March 23 while trying to travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, using fake Costa Rican passports. Kwon and five others associated with Terraform were wanted on allegations of fraud and financial crimes related to the implosion of its digital currencies in May 2022

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