Will they or won't they? The Montenegro Court of Appeals has revoked its agreement that would have allowed the U.S. to extradite former TerraForm Labs CEO Do Kwon, according to a statement issued by the court.
The decision to extradite Kwon was originally made by the High Court of Podgorica in early December. But a few weeks later, his lawyers filed an appeal and he was allowed to stay in Montenegro while the appellate court heard the case.
Montenegro Set to Extradite Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon to US: Report
Montenegro will extradite Terra co-founder Do Kwon to the U.S., according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the WSJ reported that Montenegro's Justice Minister, Andrej Milovic, had privately said he plans to send Do Kwon to the U.S. rather than South Korea. The Terraform Labs co-founder faces charges in both countries and has been the subject of a jurisdictional battle between the two countries. Do Kwon's extradition was approved by a Montenegro cou...
The court decided that the original decision to extradite Kwon was "affected by significant violations," according to a translated copy of the news release, "because the wording of the decision is incomprehensible, the decisions has no reason for decisive facts, and the reasons given are unclear."
The statement went on to say that the lower court ignored the order of arrival of the requests for extradition, implying that South Korea was the first to seek extradition of Kwon.
Kwon has been in Montenegro since last year and recently served time for using a false passport. After a court foudn him guilty, it sentenced him to four months in prison. But there's a tug of war over extraditing Kwon to the U.S. or South Korea because of alleged fraud linked to Terraform Labs.
Terra Founder Do Kwon Back in Jail in Montenegro, Bail Revoked
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has had his bail revoked in Montenegro, according to a report from Bloomberg. The high court of Montenegro in Podgorica overturned a decision from two weeks ago to release Kwon and Terraform's former chief financial officer Han Chong-joon on €400,000 ($436,000) bail each. At the time, the court had ordered that the men would be placed under house arrest in Montenegro while they awaited trial. Bloomberg reports that Kwon "remains in jail" now following today's de...
In the states, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit accusing him of orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto securities fraud. Additionally, the Southern District of New York's U.S. Attorney's Office has brought forward criminal charges against him, related to the collapse of the Terraform Labs stablecoin, TerraUSD (TUSD).
Just a month ago, Kwon and his lawyers asked that the SEC trial be postponed so there would be a "realistic possibility" that he could attend in person. But now that the issue is moot.
