South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon will probably be extradited to the United States from Montenegro as a result of collapse of two digital tokens: TerraUSD and Luna tokens.
For months, the US and South Korea have referred to as for Kwon’s extradition, claiming the fraud led to the chapter of the corporate behind the tokens, which has sunk round $40 billion (£31.7 billion) from buyers and shook international cryptocurrency markets.
Montenegro has no extradition treaties with the United States or South Korea, so the problem needed to be addressed in court docket.
The resolution marks the top of greater than 18 months of sentences and revocations.
“The Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, has issued a choice approving the extradition of the accused, Kwon Do Hyung, to the United States of America,” the Ministry of Justice introduced in an announcement.
“It was concluded that a lot of the standards prescribed by regulation favor the request for extradition by the competent authorities of the United States of America,” the observe reads.
He added that Kwon had agreed to be extradited to each South Korea and the United States.
In February, US regulators accused Kwon and his firm Terraform Labs of “orchestrating a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency securities fraud.”
“We consider that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to supply full, truthful and truthful disclosure to the general public as required for various cryptocurrency securities, notably Luna and TerraUSD,” mentioned Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States. he mentioned in an announcement on the time.
The United States mentioned Kwon repeatedly mentioned the tokens would improve in worth and misled buyers concerning the stability of TerraUSD.
Despite billion-dollar investments, TerraUSD and Luna entered a dying spiral in May 2022.
It triggered a sell-off in different main cryptocurrencies, together with Bitcoin.
In September 2022, Interpol issued a “purple discover” warrant for Kwon’s arrest. He was in Singapore earlier than his enterprise collapsed and fled to Serbia earlier than being picked up in Montenegro.
Kwon was arrested in March 2023 whereas making an attempt to board a flight to Dubai at Podgorica airport within the capital of Montenegro.
In June 2023 he was sentenced to 4 months in jail in Montenegro after being discovered responsible of falsification of official paperwork.
Former Terraform Labs monetary officer Hon Chang-joon was extradited to South Korea in February after serving 4 months in jail in Montenegro on fraud prices.
