Montenegrin Minister orders Do Kwon’s US extradtion 

Minister of Justice Bojan Božović approved the extradition of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon to the United States.

According to local media Vijesti, the Montenegrin Minister of Justice signed an order to hand over Do Kwon to US authorities instead of his home country, South Korea.

Both governments investigated Kwon and fought for his extradition in connection with the $60 billion Terra-Luna fiasco.

In 2022, Kwon’s Terra blockchain imploded, destroying most of the overleveraged crypto companies. The bankruptcy avalanche has wiped out firms like Three Arrows Capital, BlockFi, and even FTX.

Kwon fled as the crisis in the crypto market intensified, and Interpol issued a Red Notice arrest warrant for his capture.

The Terraform co-founder reportedly hid in Serbia, crossed into Montenegro and tried to fly to Dubai using a fake passport.

Before Kwon and Han Chang-joon, the former chief financial officer of Terraform Labs, boarded a private plane at Podgorica airport, police in the Montenegrin capital arrested the couple.

They were sentenced to four months in prison as U.S. and South Korean federal prosecutors jockeyed for extradition rights in the background.

The decision differed between both governments, as multiple courts in Montenegro rejected extradition orders multiple times. Do Kwon’s lawyer in the Balkans, Goran Rodić, also repeatedly objected to the extradition decisions. On December 25, the Constitutional Court of Montenegro rejected Kwon’s final appeal.

Kwon’s company, Terraform Labs, agreed to terminate its employment and pay a $4.47 billion penalty, the largest penalty in the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It is unclear whether Rodić will defy Minister Božović’s order to extradite Kwon to US territory; here he will likely be judged for the collapse of Terra.

South Korean authorities also have an ongoing Terra case. If convicted of violating local market rules, the maximum sentence for Kwon would be 40 years in prison.