Montenegro says Crypto Mogul Do Kwon will be extradited to the US

(Bloomberg) — Terraform Labs Pte. Montenegro’s government said co-founder Do Kwon would be extradited to the United States to stand trial, potentially ending a standoff over competing extradition requests by the United States and South Korea, Kwon’s home country.

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“Most of the criteria stipulated by the law support extradition requests submitted by institutions of the United States of America,” the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice said in a statement published on its website. She added that Minister Bojan Bozovic made the decision on Friday, without specifying when the delivery might take place.

Kwon, who faces trials in both New York and Seoul over the $40 billion collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022, was arrested in Montenegro last year on charges of traveling on a foreign passport. It is unclear whether Friday’s decision is final, as Montenegrin courts previously ruled that he should be sent to South Korea instead of the United States.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which filed fraud charges against Kwon last year, declined to comment Friday. Kwon’s lawyer, Goran Rudic, who sought to honor his client’s wish to be extradited to Korea, declined immediate comment when reached by phone.

Terraform and Kwon personally were found liable for the fraud following a civil trial over the SEC allegations in April. Terraform agreed to pay $4.5 billion to settle the case with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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