Crypto mogul Do Kwon to be extradited to U.S., Montenegro says

Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon will be handed over to the U.S. for prosecution, the government of Montenegro said, potentially ending a standoff over competing extradition demands by the U.S. and Kwon’s native South Korea.

“Most criteria envisaged by the law are in favor of the extradition demands from the institutions of the United States of America,” the Montenegro’s Justice Ministry said in statement posted on its website. It said Minister Bojan Bozovic made the decision on Friday, without specifying when the handover may take place.

Kwon, who faces prosecutions in both New York and Seoul over the $40 billion collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022, was arrested in Montenegro last year for traveling on a foreign passport. It’s unclear if Friday’s decision is the final one, as Montenegrin courts have also previously ruled that he should be sent to South Korea instead of the U.S.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which brought fraud charges against Kwon last year, declined to comment Friday. Kwon’s lawyer, Goran Rodic, who sought to fulfill his client’s preference for extradition to Korea, declined comment when reached by phone.

Terraform and Kwon personally were found liable for fraud following a civil trial on Securities and Exchange Commission allegations in April. Terraform has agreed to pay $4.5 billion to settle the case with the SEC.