Montenegrin officials have handed over Do Kwon to the US authorities after holding this individual for 20 months.
Do Kwon has been extradited to the US. Image: Bloomberg
According to local media, on December 31, 2024, the Montenegro police handed over Do Kwon - the founder of Terraform Labs, the company that developed the two collapsed cryptocurrency projects LUNA and UST - to US authorities, in accordance with the extradition ruling issued by the country's Ministry of Justice.
The Vijesti news agency reported that the South Korean citizen Kwon Do-Hyung was handed over by the Montenegro special police, with the support of Interpol, to the US side at Podgorica Airport.
As previously reported by Coin68, the Montenegro Ministry of Justice on December 27 announced that it would choose the US as the country to extradite Do Kwon instead of his home country of South Korea.
Montenegro Prime Minister Milojko Spajić also confirmed the above information on the social network X (Twitter), affirming that while his country welcomes technological advances in crypto and AI, it will not tolerate fraudulent and deceptive acts.
Today Montenegro completed the extradition of Do Kwon to the United States to face charges in the Terra/Luna case.
— Milojko Spajić (@MickeySpajic) December 31, 2024
Our nation WELCOMES INNOVATION and legitimate crypto, AI and other tech entrepreneurs - but we have ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FRAUD. This extradition demonstrates our…
This marks the end of the legal disputes within Montenegro, which began when the country arrested Do Kwon in March 2023 on charges of using a fake passport. Since then, the country's Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court have repeatedly issued and then revoked decisions on the extradition destination of Do Kwon between the US and South Korea, the two countries that both want to prosecute him for his role in the LUNA-UST collapse in mid-2022.
In the US, Do Kwon will face criminal charges including 2 counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, 2 counts of securities fraud, 2 counts of wire fraud, asset fraud, and market manipulation related to LUNA and UST, which caused $60 billion in losses.
This individual initially also supported the option of being extradited to South Korea, where financial crimes usually carry prison sentences of 30 to 40 years. In contrast, US law will have separate sentencing frameworks for each charge, potentially resulting in a much higher sentence for the Terraform Labs founder.
It is not yet clear when Do Kwon's trial in the US will take place.
In June 2024, Terraform Labs agreed to pay a $4.47 billion fine to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle the lawsuit against the company, but later also announced its dissolution.
Compiled by Coin68
