South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States from Montenegro due to the collapse of two digital currencies – TerraUSD and Luna tokens.
For months, the US and South Korea have sought Kwon's extradition, claiming fraud led to the failure of the company behind the tokens, which sunk around $40bn (£31.7bn) from investors and rocked global cryptocurrency markets.
Montenegro does not have extradition treaties with the United States or South Korea, so this case had to go through the courts.
The decision marks the end of more than 18 months of rulings and cancellations.
The Ministry of Justice said in a statement, “Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic issued a decision approving the extradition of the accused, Kwon Do-hyung, to the United States of America.”
The statement said: “It was concluded that the majority of the criteria stipulated in the law support the extradition request from the competent authorities in the United States of America.”
She added that Kwon agreed to be extradited to both South Korea and the United States.
In February, US regulators accused Kwon and his company Terraform Labs of “coordinating a securities fraud involving billions of dollars in crypto assets.”
“We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair and honest disclosure as required for a range of crypto asset securities, most notably Luna and TerraUSD,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said. he said in a statement at the time.
The US alleged that Kwon repeatedly claimed that the value of cryptocurrencies would increase, and misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD.
Despite billion-dollar investments, TerraUSD and Luna entered a death spiral in May 2022.
This has led to widespread sell-offs in other major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin.
Kwon was arrested in March 2023 while trying to board a plane bound for Dubai at Podgorica Airport in the Montenegrin capital.
In June 2023, he was sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro after being found guilty of forging official documents.
Terraform Labs' former chief financial officer, Hoon Chang-jun, was extradited to South Korea in February, after spending four months in prison in Montenegro on fraud charges.
