Key takeaways:
- Do Kwon was ordered to be extradited to the US or South Korea, but the Supreme Court of Montenegro overturned the ruling.
- Though he has been held in Montenegro since his March 2023 arrest for using forged travel credentials, he is facing criminal proceedings in both nations.
Do Kwon, a co-founder of Terraform Labs, was ordered to be extradited to the United States or South Korea, but the Supreme Court of Montenegro overturned the ruling.
The Supreme Court of Montenegro announced in a notice dated April 5 that it granted a plea for protection of legality against a lower court ruling that would have permitted Kwon’s extradition to South Korea.
Requesting that the Supreme Court make the final decision, prosecutors claimed that an appellate court had broken the law when it denied an appeal from Kwon’s defense team. According to the decision:
“In a situation where it is a matter of competing requests from two states for the extradition of the same person, and not a conflict of requests for the extradition of the same person, as found by the lower courts, the court’s obligation is to determine, in accordance with its powers, whether the legal conditions for extradition have been met the defendant in relation to each petition individually, after which the competent minister, not the court, decides on the permission and order of priority of extradition,”
The Supreme Court declared that the High Court in Podgorica would decide on Kwon’s extradition, determining whether to send the Terraform co-founder to the US or his home country of South Korea.
Though he has been held in Montenegro since his March 2023 arrest for using forged travel credentials, he is facing criminal proceedings in both nations. According to reports, Kwon can still travel around Montenegro while the legal system considers his request for extradition.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attorneys have proceeded with a jury trial against Terraform and the co-founder in March despite Kwon’s absence. During the trial, a few of Kwon’s earlier remarks were read into the record. At the time of publishing, the case was still pending.
Kwon is still in Montenegro; however, Han Chang-joon, the former CFO of Terraform Labs, who was also detained in March 2023, was deported to South Korea. Hyun-seong Shin, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, is among the many people associated with the company that the South Korean authorities have charged.
