Quo Vadis, Do Kwon? Montenegro Green-Lights TFL CEO's Extradition

The Higher Court in Podgorica has ruled that Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of blockchain firm Terraform Labs (TFL), can be extradited to either the U.S. or South Korea.

The legal requirements for the extradition of Kwon have been met based on the request of South Korea's Ministry of Justice and the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs, the Higher Court of Podgorica said in an official statement on Nov. 17.

The statement followed a court's decision denying the appeal of the Terraform Labs CEO on his four-month prison sentence.

It remains unclear for now which country will win the bid for Kwon. However, it is believed that the crypto mogul prefers to face criminal charges against him in his home country.

"In the explanation of the aforementioned decision, it was pointed out that the fact that the defendant KDH gave his consent to be extradited to the competent authorities of the Republic of South Korea according to a shortened procedure, however, the High Court in Podgorica found that it should still be decided as in the wording of the respective decision, because in the specific case it was on extradition to which several states have appealed, and that primacy is still regulated by the provisions of art. 22 of the Law on International Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, when the Minister will decide which country has priority in case of possible extradition, from which it follows that the Minister of Justice of Montenegro will make the final decision on this matter," the court said.

Kwon left South Korea and went to Singapore following the implosion of the Terra ecosystem, which was triggered when the so-called algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) de-pegged from the dollar, bringing along with it the ecosystem's native token LUNA and wiping out billions of dollars in investment.

Despite claiming he was not on the run, Kwon was no longer in Singapore and was reported to have withdrawn funds using a Bitcoin ATM in Serbia in December 2022.

The South Korean government also coordinated with Interpol, which eventually put Kwon on its Red Notice list.

Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 after he was caught in Podgorica's airport while allegedly in possession of fake travel documents.

Kwon is currently serving his four-month sentence in Montenegro and will be extradited to either the U.S. or South Korea once done serving his sentence.

"If the Minister of Justice allows the final extradition of the previously named defendant, the extradition shall take place after the execution of the criminal sanction pronounced before the Basic Court in Podgorica in the case against him for the criminal offense of falsification of a document from Art . 412 st. 2 in connection with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro, in which case he was legally sentenced to imprisonment for 4 (four) months," the Higher Court of Podgorica said.