South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon is being extradited from Montenegro to the United States over the collapse of two digital tokens – TerraUSD and Luna tokens.
For months, the US and South Korea have sought Kwon’s extradition, claiming fraud led to the failure of the company behind the tokens, which netted investors around $40bn (£31.7bn) and the global Crypto markets shook.
Montenegro does not have extradition treaties with the US or South Korea, so the matter had to be heard in court.
The decision marks the end of more than 18 months of rulings and overturns.
“Minister of Justice Bojan Bozovic has issued a decision authorizing the extradition of defendant Kwon Do Hyung to the United States of America,” the Justice Department said in a statement
“It was concluded that the majority of the statutory criteria support the extradition request from the relevant authorities of the United States of America,” the statement said.
It added that Kwon had agreed to be extradited to both South Korea and the United States.
In February, U.S. 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 the public with the full, fair and truthful disclosure required for a variety of crypto asset securities, particularly Luna and TerraUSD,” said Gary Gensler, Chairman the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). said in a statement at the time.
The US alleged that Kwon repeatedly claimed that the tokens would increase in value and misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD.
Despite investing billions, TerraUSD and Luna entered a death spiral in May 2022.
It triggered a sell-off in other major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.
In September 2022, Interpol issued a “Red Notice” arrest warrant against Kwon. He was in Singapore before his business collapsed and fled to Serbia before being caught in Montenegro.
Kwon was arrested in March 2023 while trying to board a flight to Dubai at Podgorica Airport in the capital of Montenegro.
In June 2023, he was sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro for falsifying official documents.
Former Terraform Labs finance official Hon Chang-joon was extradited to South Korea in February after spending four months in prison in Montenegro on fraud charges.
