A Montenegrin appeals court has upheld a ruling to extradite Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, to his native South Korea, rejecting a bid to extradite him to the United States. This decision concludes a protracted legal saga involving the cryptocurrency mogul, who was arrested in Montenegro last year.
The legal battle saw multiple rulings from various Montenegrin courts regarding whether Kwon should be extradited to the U.S. or South Korea, both of which had requested his extradition. The Montenegrin Appeals Court declared on Thursday that its decision is legally binding, although the exact timing of Kwon’s extradition remains unclear.
Kwon faces charges of fraud in the United States related to a $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, an event that severely impacted retail investors globally. He was arrested alongside another South Korean while attempting to travel to Dubai using fake Costa Rican passports. Subsequently, Kwon served a prison term in Montenegro for passport forgery.
Kwon and five others associated with Terraform have been wanted for fraud and financial crimes linked to the collapse of their digital currencies in May 2022.
