South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States from Montenegro due to the collapse of two digital tokens – TerraUSD and Luna tokens.
For months, the United States and South Korea have sought Kwon's extradition, alleging that the fraud led to the bankruptcy of the company behind the tokens, which cost some $40 billion (31, 7 billion) to investors and shook global crypto markets.
Montenegro does not have extradition treaties with the United States or South Korea, so the case had to go to court.
This decision marks the end of more than 18 months of decisions and reversals.
“The Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, has issued a decision approving the extradition of the accused, Kwon Do Hyung, to the United States of America,” the Ministry of Justice announced in a statement.
“It has been concluded that the majority of the criteria prescribed by law favor the request for extradition from the competent authorities of the United States of America,” the statement said.
He added that Kwon had consented to being extradited to South Korea and the United States.
In February, US regulators accused Kwon and his company Terraform Labs of “orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud.”
“We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide complete, fair and truthful information to the public as required by a multitude of crypto asset securities, including Luna and TerraUSD,” said Gary Gensler, president of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). said in a statement at the time.
The United States alleged that Kwon repeatedly claimed that the value of the tokens would increase and misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD.
Despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and Luna entered a death spiral in May 2022.
This sparked a sell-off in other major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.
Kwon was arrested in March 2023 while trying to board a flight to Dubai at Podgorica Airport in Montenegro's capital.
In June 2023, he was sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro for falsifying official documents.
Former Terraform Labs finance executive Hon Chang-joon was extradited to South Korea in February after serving four months in prison in Montenegro for fraud.
