Seoul, Dec 27 (IANS) The Montenegrin government will extradite South Korean crypto mogul Do Kwon to the United States for trial, according to local reports.
Montenegro’s Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic signed the decision ordering the extradition of Do Kwon, whose full name is Kwon Do-hyung, to the U.S., the local online newspaper Vijesti reported on Friday (Montenegro time).
Kwon, 33, co-founder of Terraform Labs, has been arrested and detained in the Balkan country for his role in one of the biggest disasters in cryptocurrency history, reports Yonhap news agency.
South Korean and U.S. authorities have demanded the Montenegrin government to extradite him to their countries, while investigating his role in the alleged fraud and tax evasion involving cryptocurrency.
Seoul authorities have been looking into Kwon’s fraud and tax evasion charges after investors in the company’s cryptocurrencies — TerraUSD and Luna — pressed Ponzi-scheme charges against him following the coins’ massive crash in May 2022.
Kwon has been also wanted by the U.S., where he was charged with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York.
TerraUSD was designed as a stablecoin, which was pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar. But holders of TerraUSD and Luna lost more than an estimated US$40 billion in market value after the stablecoin plunged far below its $1 peg in May 2022.
Earlier, Montenegro’s Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal lodged by Kwon over a verdict on his extradition. In a unanimous decision, the Constitutional Court rejected the appeal that Kwon lodged, citing legal issues.
In August this year, Montenegro’s highest court postponed an earlier decision on the extradition of South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon to his home country in connection with a massive cryptocurrency crash.
Previously, a Montenegrin appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling to hand over Kwon to South Korea, rejecting a request to send him to the United States instead.
Kwon, co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, is wanted by both South Korea and the U.S.
—IANS
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