Proactive Investors - A Montenegrin court has approved the extradition of former crypto mogul Do Kwon, with a decision pending on whether he will be extradited to South Korea or the US, both of which are seeking his custody.
Kwon is accused of a multibillion-dollar fraud in the US through Terraform Labs, the cryptocurrency company he founded and headed until its collapse in May 2022.
The High Court in Montenegro's capital Podgorica said Kwon agreed to extradition to South Korea, but the final decision rests with the justice minister, taking into account multiple extradition requests.
This decision will follow the completion of his four-month prison term for document forgery.
South Korean national Kwon was detained in late March as he attempted to board a flight to Dubai from Podgorica, alongside Han Chang-joon, Terraform Labs' former finance officer.
His arrest followed an eight-count indictment by the US District Court in Manhattan for securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy.
Kwon's arrest ended a period of uncertainty regarding his whereabouts since May 2022, following the collapse of TerraUSD (UST), a stablecoin developed by Terraform Labs.
This event, along with the collapse of its sister token LUNA, contributed significantly to a broad downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
UST was designed to maintain a firm peg to the US dollar, thereby providing stability in the volatile crypto markets.
However, the algorithm underpinning UST's value failed catastrophically. In May 2022, LUNA and UST, which had a combined market value of approximately US$45 billion, became virtually worthless within a week, causing massive losses for investors and severely tarnishing Kwon's reputation.
The collapse of Terraform Labs is seen as a pivotal event that precipitated broader turmoil in the cryptocurrency market, including the liquidation of major crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.