Terraform Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyung Extradition Decision to Korea: Latest News

On March 24 last year, Kwon Do-hyung, CEO of Terraform Labs, is being escorted from Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. /AP Yonhap News

There is a high possibility that Kwon Do-hyeong (33), CEO of Terraform Labs, who is a key figure in the collapse of virtual currencies Terra and Luna, will eventually be extradited to Korea and face trial. It has been about a year since he was arrested on charges of using a fake passport while trying to board a flight from Montenegro to Dubai in March last year.

The Podgorica High Court in Montenegro, which has been handling the extradition issue of Mr. Kwon, announced on the 7th, “We have decided to extradite Mr. Kwon to Korea.” This is because the Montenegrin Court of Appeals invalidated the decision to send Mr. Kwon to the United States on the 5th and ordered a retrial. The appeals court said, “Korea’s extradition request was made on March 29 last year, which was earlier than the US request on April 3,” and took as its main basis the fact that the Korean government filed a request for extradition before the US.

Initially, the Montenegro High Court decided to extradite Kwon to the United States on the 21st of last month, but Kwon’s defense team appealed the decision. It is known that Mr. Kwon’s side has strongly wanted to go to Korea on the grounds that the maximum sentence for economic offenses in Korea is about 40 years, while in the United States, prison sentences of more than 100 years are possible.

In the future, if the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice approves Mr. Kwon’s repatriation to Korea, it will notify the Korean Ministry of Justice and discuss specific extradition procedures. Bloomberg reported, however, that “the Minister of Justice of Montenegro has the final approval authority regarding the extradition process.” As Justice Minister Andrej Milovich has put weight on Kwon’s move to the United States, saying, “The United States is our most important foreign policy partner,” it is unclear whether the judiciary’s decision will be accepted as is.

Mr. Kwon left Korea for Singapore and went missing just before the Terra and Luna crash in May 2022, when investors around the world suffered losses worth more than 50 trillion won. Afterwards, he was placed on the wanted list by law enforcement agencies in three countries, including the United States, Korea, and Singapore, on charges of fraud, and is known to have been living as a fugitive, wandering around the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Then, on March 23 last year, he was arrested at the Podgorica Airport in Montenegro while trying to leave the country using a forged Costa Rica passport and was tried locally. He was classified as a target for extradition, and a grueling court battle lasted for a year over whether he would be extradited to the United States or Korea. has continued.

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2024-03-07 16:15:00
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