This file photo taken June 16, 2023, and provided by the Montenegro-based daily newspaper Vijesti shows disgraced South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon heading to the district court in Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro, to attend his trial on charges of using a fake passport. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
WASHINGTON, Mar. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — A court in the Balkan country of Montenegro ruled Thursday that disgraced crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon should be extradited to his home country, South Korea, according to the Associated Press.
The High Court’s ruling on the co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs came days after an appeals court struck down an earlier decision to send him to the United States to face fraud charges.
Kwon was nabbed in Montenegro in March last year. He 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 (US$37 billion) in market value.
South Korean prosecutors have sought the extradition of Kwon on a set of allegations related to the crypto debacle.
Kwon has also been wanted by the U.S., where he was charged with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York.
TerraUSD was designed as a stablecoin pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar. But holders of TerraUSD and Luna lost most of their assets after the stablecoin plunged below its $1 peg.
(Yonhap)
