Do Kwon, a North Korean businessman in the field of bitcoin, will be deported from Montenegro after TerraUSD and Luna tokens are no longer available.
For months, the US and South Korea have been seeking Kwon’s extradition, alleging that fraud led to the failure of the company behind the tokens, which sunk some$ 40bn ( £31.7bn ) from investors and rocked global crypto markets.
Since Montenegro has no extradition agreements with the US or South Korea, the case had to be litigated in court.
More than 18 months of decisions and reverses are over with the choice.
” The Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, issued a choice approving the abduction of the accused, Kwon Do Hyung, to the United States of America”, the Ministry of Justice announced said in a speech
According to the statement,” It was determined that the majority of the conditions set forth by law favor the demand for extradition from the competent authorities of the United States of America.”
Kwon also stated that he had consented to being sent to both South Korea and the US.
US regulators charged Kwon and his business Terraform Labs with “orchestrating a multi-billion money crypto asset assets scam” in February.
US Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) Chairman Gary Gensler claimed in a statement at the time that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with the full, fair, and truthful disclosure required for a number of crypto asset securities, most notably Luna and TerraUSD.
The US alleges that Kwon consistently misled investors about the security of TerraUSD by making claims that the cryptocurrencies would increase in value.
Despite billion in assets, TerraUSD and Luna went into a death circular in May 2022.
It caused a sell-off in another significant cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.
In September 2022, Interpol issued a “red see” warrant for Kwon’s incarceration. Before his firm crashed, he fled to Serbia and was taken to Montenegro where he was in Singapore.
Kwon was arrested in March 2023 as he tried to board a trip to Dubai at Podgorica Airport, in Montenegro’s investment.
He was found guilty of forging official records and sentenced to four weeks of prison in Montenegro in June 2023.
The previous financing agent of Terraform Labs, Hon Chang-joon, was extradited to South Korea in February, after serving four months in prison in Montenegro over fraud claims.