Source: AFP
A Montenegrin appeals court on Friday overturned an order to extradite cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to South Korea — where he is wanted over the multibillion-dollar collapse of Terraform Labs.
For months, Seoul and Washington have sought the South Korean’s extradition for his suspected role in fraud linked to the dramatic collapse of his company, which wiped out about $40 billion of investors’ money and rocked global crypto markets.
The Court of Appeal of Montenegro said it accepted “the appeals of the accused Kwon Do-hyung and his defense lawyers, revoking the decision of the Supreme Court in Podgorica”.
The decision added that it would return the case to the “trial court for retrial and decision.”
The decision came weeks after a series of previous court rulings in the Balkan country appeared to pave the way for Terraform’s founder to be extradited.
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The crypto tycoon, whose real name is Kwon Do-hyung, had been on the run for months after fleeing South Korea and then Singapore before the company collapsed in 2022.
He was arrested together with his accomplice in Montenegro last March.
Montenegro has already deported Kwon’s business partner — identified only by the initials JCH — to South Korea in early February.
The company’s TerraUSD was marketed as a “stablecoin,” a token that is pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar to avoid drastic fluctuations.
Do Kwon successfully marketed them as the next big thing in crypto, attracting billions in investment and global hype.
Media reports in South Korea described him as a “genius”.
But despite billions in investment, TerraUSD and its sister Luna entered a death spiral in May 2022.
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/fd3cdd06a59f47b9.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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Experts said Kwon had set up a glorified Ponzi scheme in which many investors lost their savings.
He fled South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run, eventually ending up in custody in Montenegro after trying to board a flight with fake Costa Rican travel documents.
In January, Terraform Labs formally sought bankruptcy protection in the United States.
The bankruptcy filing will allow Terraform “to execute its business plan while navigating ongoing legal proceedings, including representative litigation pending in Singapore and litigation in the US involving the Securities and Exchange Commission,” the company said in a statement.
The company said it also intends to “meet all financial obligations to employees and vendors.”
Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators following a series of controversies over the past year, including the high-profile collapse of the FTX exchange.
Source: AFP