Terraform Labs Saga Continues: Do Kwon’s Fate Hangs Between Montenegro, South Korea, and the U.S
Elena R8 Mar 20241 min read
US Prosecutors are aiming to continue seeking the extradition of the Terraform Labs Co-founder, Do Kwon, in spite of Montenegro’s High Court ruling of handing him over to South Korea to face charges over the $40 billion TerraUSD stablecoin collapse that had taken place in the year 2022.
After Terra’s collapse, Kwon managed to escape South Korean authorities only until he was arrested in Montenegro while trying to travel with a fake passport. Kwon got charged with the former Terra executive Han Chang-joon, who was extradited to South Korea in February.
Kwon will reportedly stay back in Montenegro, for a four-month sentence over possessing false documents. Following which, he is likely to be sent back to South Korea, as per Kwon’s Montenegrin attorney.
Some of the crypto lawyers who are closely following the case raised questions over Kwon being sent back to South Korea. Terrence Yang, a Managing Director at Swan Bitcoin and former counsel at Merrill Lynch, termed this decision as ‘travesty’. Yang underscored that the US has successfully prosecuted people involved in significant collapses of crypto exchanges, an instance being Sam Bankman of FTX.
Yang stated that – “The US probably has the largest number of victims by both number and dollar amount. It seems a bit ridiculous for the Montenegro court to extradite Do Kwon to South Korea, where he might get acquitted or a comically light sentence as opposed to the United States.”
The U.S. and South Korea have both requested his extradition, while the Montenegrin authorities will make the decision on where he needs to be sent.
At the same time, the FTX Co-founder, Sam Bankman Fried, will potentially face decades of imprisonment over fraud in New York.
