Montenegro's Supreme Court puts Do Kwon's extradition to Korea on hold

Finance

Published: 22 Mar. 2024, 10:51 Updated: 24 Mar. 2024, 16:52

Montenegro's Supreme Court puts Do Kwon's extradition to Korea on hold

Montenegrin police officers escort South Korean citizen and Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon in Montenegro's capital Podgorica, Saturday, March 23, 2024. Kwon was transferred on Saturday from prison, where he had served a four-month sentence for using a fake passport, to a facility for foreigners pending his announced extradition to his native Korea. [AP/YONHAP]

Do Kwon's extradition to Korea from Montenegro has been put on hold as the country's Supreme Court issued an order on Friday overturning the ruling from two lower courts.

The Supreme Court said on its official website that it is issuing a decision that "postpones" Kwon's extradition to Korea as requested by local prosecutors. The Korean crypto fugitive's travel documents have reportedly been confiscated to bar him from escaping the country, and he was sent to shelter for foreigners after being released from prison early Saturday where he completed his four-month prison sentence for traveling with fake papers.

Montenegro prosecutors had appealed a recent court ruling to extradite disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Kwon to Korea instead of the United States over the $40 billion crash his inventions — TerraUSD and Luna — caused in the crypto market in 2022.

Montenegro’s top prosecutors’ office said in a statement Thursday that it has requested that the top court decide whether the procedures behind the appeals court’s recent rulings to extradite Kwon to Korea were legal.

It claims that the rulings violated due process as they were reached irregularly through summary procedures and by overstepping the scope of their authority.

The request was made a day after an appeals court in Montenegro confirmed a ruling to extradite Kwon to Korea, upholding a previous ruling by the high court.

The court said that a request for Kwon was first lodged by Korea.

The ruling was considered a win for the failed crypto entrepreneur, as penalties for white-collar crime are lower in Korea than they are in the United States.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried potentially faces decades in prison after being convicted of fraud in New York in November. He was prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office, which also indicted Kwon on fraud charges.

Kwon also faces a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the plunge of his creations. The SEC suit will go to trial at the end of March.

Kwon's lawyer, Goran Rodic, reportedly said an illegal investigation has been conducted by the police while Kwon was supposed to remain at large after being released from prison, adding that he would file an appeal.

BY JIN MIN-JI, JIN EUN-SOO [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]