Montenegrin court overturns ruling to extradite Terra founder Do Kwon to U.S.

An appeals court in Montenegro overturned an earlier decision to extradite Do Kwon, the disgraced Korean cryptocurrency mogul, to the United States over criminal fraud charges, the court's website showed Tuesday.

Do Kwon being transferred to a court in Podgorica, Montenegro, for trial on passport forgery charges on June 16, 2023. [VIJESTI]

An appeals court in Montenegro overturned an earlier decision to extradite Do Kwon, the disgraced Korean cryptocurrency mogul, to the United States over criminal fraud charges, the court's website showed Tuesday.

Earlier, the High Court in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, ruled that Kwon should be extradited to the United States rather than to his home country, Korea, to face criminal charges. Kwon, the co-founder of Singapore-based cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, has been in custody in the Balkan country since early last year for traveling on a fake passport.

The appellate court on Tuesday said it accepted Kwon's appeal and has decided to send the case back to the trial court.

Before he was nabbed in Montenegro in March 2023, Kwon had been on the loose after fleeing Korea amid a probe in connection with the crash of Terraform Labs' TerraUSD and Luna coins in May 2022. The crash was estimated to have wiped out nearly 50 trillion won ($37 billion) in market value.

Kwon has been wanted by the United States, where he was charged with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York. Korean prosecutors have also sought the extradition of Kwon on a set of allegations related to the crypto debacle.

TerraUSD was designed as a stablecoin, pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar. However, holders of TerraUSD and Luna lost most of their assets after the stablecoin plunged far below its $1 peg.

BY SHIN HA-NEE, YONHAP [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]