Montenegro has agreed to extradite cryptocurrency tycoon Do Kwon to the United States

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro has approved the draft resolution A South Korean business tycoon known as the “King of Cryptocurrencies” has been extradited to the United StatesThe Balkan country’s Ministry of Justice said on Friday.

Minister Bojan Bozovic issued a statement allowing Do Kwon’s extradition Founder of Singaporean cryptocurrency company Terraform Labs Who was arrested in Montenegro last year, according to the ministry.

It was not immediately clear when Kwon would be sent to the United States

The move comes in the wake of a months-long legal saga in Do Kwon’s case. both of them South Korea and the United States had requested Do Kwon’s extradition Over the past months, various courts in Montenegro have issued and overturned multiple rulings extraditing Kwon to either the United States or South Korea.

The Justice Ministry’s statement referred to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Montenegro that said conditions had been met for Kwon’s extradition to one of the two countries, and that the final decision rested with the Minister of Justice.

The department said on Friday that more legal criteria support extradition to the United States

Kwon’s lawyers in Montenegro said they learned of the decision from the media, and that their client could not be extradited until they received the ruling.

“Behind this illegal behavior of the minister, the courts, on two occasions, made the decision to extradite Do Kwon to South Korea,” lawyers Goran Rudic and Marija Radulovic said in a statement.

Kwon has been charged in the US with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York in connection with Terraform Labs’ $40 billion cryptocurrency collapse, which devastated retail investors around the world.

He and Another South Korean was arrested in Montenegro while trying to leave for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, using fake Costa Rican passports. Kwon served a prison sentence in Montenegro for using a fake passport.

Kwon and five others linked to Terraform were wanted for fraud and financial crimes in connection with the collapse of its cryptocurrency in May 2022.

TerraUSD is designed to be a “stablecoin,” a currency pegged to stable assets such as the dollar to prevent radical price fluctuations. However, about $40 billion was wiped off the market capitalization of holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister coin, Luna, after the stablecoin fell to well below the $1 exchange rate.