According to Agence France Presse, Montenegro is set to extradite South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to the U.S.
Minister of Justice Bojan Bozovic greenlit the extradition earlier this Friday, according to the report.
This comes after more than a year of various twists and turns. Kwon was arrested by the Balkan country back in 2023 when he was heading to Dubai with a fake passport. His extradition had been postponed on various occasions.
The astonishing implosion of the Terra network, which took place in May 2022, has resulted in roughly $40 billion worth of losses for investors, according to various sources. The whole ecosystem collapsed after the high-flying TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin lost its peg and plunged to zero.
Alex DovbnyaThe SEC later sued Terraform Labs and Kwon, claiming that they were deceiving investors about the infamous TerraUSD stablecoin. The regulator brought civil fraud charges against them back in February 2023.
A jury then found Terraform Labs and Kwon liable, siding with the SEC in April.
In September, Terraform Labs also obtained approval for its bankruptcy plan.
Kwon has also been slapped with criminal charges in both the US and his native South Korea. Both countries had been seeking Kwon's extradition, with Montegero being caught in the middle of this diplomatic dispute. Montenegro ultimately decided that the US would be a preferable option due to most of the criteria prescribed by law.
This is not the outcome that Kwon was hoping for given that the US has harsher punishments for financial crimes compared to South Korea.
Gamza Khanzadaev
Dan Burgin