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South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States from Montenegro over the collapse of two digital tokens: TerraUSD and Luna tokens.
For months, the United States and South Korea have been seeking Kwon’s extradition, alleging that fraud led to the failure of the company behind the tokens, sinking some $40 billion (£31.7 billion ) from investors and shook global crypto markets.
Montenegro does not have extradition treaties with the United States or South Korea, so the matter had to be taken to court.
The decision marks the end of more than 18 months of rulings and reversals.
“Minister of Justice Bojan Bozovic issued a decision approving the extradition of the accused, Kwon Do Hyung, to the United States of America,” the Justice Ministry announced in a statement.
“It was concluded that the majority of the criteria prescribed by law favor the request for extradition by the competent authorities of the United States of America,” the statement said.
He added that Kwon had agreed to be extradited to both 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 the public with full, fair and truthful disclosure as required for a number of cryptoasset securities, particularly for Luna and TerraUSD,” said U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman US (SEC), Gary Gensler. he said in a statement at the time.
The United States alleged that Kwon repeatedly claimed that the tokens would increase in value and misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD.
Despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and Luna entered a death spiral in May 2022.
It triggered a sell-off of other major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.
In September 2022, Interpol issued a “red notice” order for Kwon’s arrest. He was in Singapore before his business collapsed and fled to Serbia before being detained in Montenegro.
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 after being found guilty of falsifying official documents.
Former Terraform Labs CFO Hon Chang-joon was extradited to South Korea in February after serving four months in prison in Montenegro on fraud charges.