Key takeaways:
- Kwon’s attorneys have appealed a high court ruling that the justice minister of Montenegro should consider his extradition to either the US or South Korea.
- Montenegrin authorities detained Kwon in March 2023 for trying to exit the nation with forged travel credentials.
Do Kwon, a Terraform Labs co-founder, is still involved in a legal dispute. His lawyers have filed an appeal against a high court decision that the Montenegrin justice minister should think about extraditing him to South Korea or the United States.
Justice Minister Andrej Milović would have decided the Terraform co-founder’s extradition in an April 8 ruling from the High Court in Podgorica, but Kwon’s legal team filed an appeal against that decision, according to a report published on April 23 in the Montenegrin news outlet Vijesti.
Once a lower court determined that Kwon may be extradited to South Korea, the Montenegro Supreme Court granted a plea for legality protection, prompting the high court’s ruling.
Kwon’s attorneys apparently referred to the high court ruling as “unfounded and illegal” and a “bizarre” reading of the law. The extradition case involving Kwon has been hopping between lower and higher courts for months as his attorney files procedural petitions and appeals; it is unclear if this appeal will put a stop to the proceedings.
Montenegrin authorities detained Kwon in March 2023 for trying to exit the nation with forged travel credentials. According to reports, he is still free to travel inside the nation until judges decide who can order Kwon’s extradition to the United States or South Korea, where he would be prosecuted.
Terraform and Kwon were found guilty of fraud by a US jury in a civil case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC declared its intention to seek a $5.3 billion judgment and $100 million in civil penalties against Kwon personally after the ruling.
Due in part to Terraform’s demise, a significant downturn in the cryptocurrency market started in 2022 and resulted in the filing of bankruptcy for companies like FTX, BlockFi, and Celsius. The platform filed in the US under Chapter 11 protection in January 2024.
