KEY POINTS
- Do Kwon was initially set to be extradited by Dec. 15
- However, his camp contested the ddecision of the Hiigh Court of Podgorica
- The decision on Kwon's extradition is now being considered by an apellate court in Podgorica
The Montenegro High Court has decided to extend Terraform Labs (TFL) CEO Do Kwon's detention until February 2024, following extradition requests by the U.S. and South Korea.
Kwon, the disgraced co-founder and CEO of the blockchain firm TFL, was initially sentenced to be in Montenegrin custody until Friday. However, Montenegrin High Court spokesperson Marija Rakovic shared that the court ruled his stay would be extended until Feb. 15, 2024.
The decision was made after the U.S. and South Korea made extradition requests to prosecute the crypto entrepreneur on charges related to the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin.
The high court had ruled in November that Kwon would be extradited by Friday. However, the crypto mogul's defense team appealed the court's decision in the appellate court in Podgorica, the country's capital.
The Montenegrin Court of Appeal confirmed last week that Kwon contested the decision of the High Court of Podgorica when he said that he did not accept the court's decision to extradite him, saying, "I do not submit to the court's decision."
Last week, a report surfaced online claiming that Montenegro's Justice Minister Andrej Milovic had decided where to send the embattled crypto executive, before it was publicly announced.
Milovic reportedly told officials in closed-door discussions of his plan to send Kwon to the U.S., especially when he met U.S. ambassador to Montenegro Judy Rising Reinke.
Kwon has lawsuits waiting for him in his home country, the U.S., as well as in Singapore, following the implosion of TFL in May 2021, which wiped out billions of dollars in investment.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), along with several other government agencies and regulators, charged Kwon with eight criminal counts, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation earlier this year.
U.S. prosecutors also charged him with orchestrating a years-long cryptocurrency fraud that wiped out at least $40 billion investment.
However, Kwon has been denying allegations of fraud filed against his name. He also denied he was on the run last year when he was arrested on March 24 at Montenegrin International Airport for illegal possession of fake travel documents.
The crypto mogul co-founded Terra, a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins, in 2018.
In May 2021, its so-called algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), de-pegged from the dollar, taking along with it the ecosystem's native cryptocurrency LUNA and kickstarting a market downturn that extended until 2022.
