KEY POINTS
- The High Court of Podgorica last month "approved the extradition" of Kwon to either the U.S. or his home country South Korea
- Kwon appealed the decision this month
- There is no official statement yet on where the crypto executive will be extradited
Do Kwon, the disgraced former CEO of Terraform Labs, has been exhausting all legal means to achieve victory. However, the latest report that Montenegro is planning to extradite him to the U.S. and not to his home country might not bode well for the crypto executive's legal battle.
Kwon is currently serving a four-month prison sentence in Montenegro for possession of fake travel documents. The Balkan country's Ministry of Justice has to decide before Dec. 15 which country he will be deported to.
Last month, the High Court of Podgorica "approved the extradition" of Kwon to either the U.S. or his home country South Korea. However, the crypto entrepreneur's last-ditch appeal this month compelled the country's Court of Appeal to review the high court's decision.
While a legal tug-of-war between Kwon's camp and the Montenegrin government is expected, there is no official statement on where the crypto executive will be extradited.
However, it appears Justice Minister Andrej Milovic has already decided where to send the embattled crypto executive even before it is publicly announced.
During closed-door discussions, Milovic told other officials his plan to send Kwon to the U.S., particularly when he met U.S. ambassador to Montenegro Judy Rising Reinke, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Kwon is facing multiple criminal charges in the U.S.
The outlet quoted the justice minister as saying that "the public will be informed of the decision in a timely manner."
While Goran Rodic, Kwon's Montenegrin lawyer, could not confirm where his client will face criminal charges, he did not discount the possibility that the fallen crypto mogul could be deported to the U.S.
Kwon has lawsuits waiting for him in his home country, as well as in Singapore.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), along with several other government agencies and regulators, charged Kwon with eight criminal counts, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation earlier this year.
U.S. prosecutors also charged him with orchestrating a years-long cryptocurrency fraud that wiped out at least $40 billion investment.
The Terra ecosystem imploded in May 2021 after its so-called algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), depegged from the dollar and its sister token LUNA crashed to zero.
