Beleaguered cryptocurrency entrepreneur Dokwon scored another victory in his fight against extradition this week when Montenegro’s appeals court halted proceedings calling for further review of the case.
TLDR
- Mr. Do-Kwon won his second appeal against a Montenegrin court order authorizing his extradition to the United States and South Korea to face criminal charges.
- The Court of Appeal overturned an earlier ruling upholding the extradition, citing “serious violations” and an “unclear” decision that lacked investigation into the details of the case.
- This marks a victory for Kwon, who first won at the appeals court in November 2022 but was overturned in December.
- Kwon faces charges in connection with the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin and the broader Terra ecosystem last May, in what authorities allege was a multibillion-dollar fraud.
- Kwon’s former Terraform Labs CFO was extradited to South Korea earlier this week, but Kwon has so far avoided a similar fate as the investigation into his case continues.
Kwon faces criminal charges in South Korea and the United States in connection with the catastrophic collapse of the TerraUSD algorithmic stablecoin and its supporting Luna token in May 2022. The incident resulted in the loss of approximately $60 billion in investor funds.
Prosecutors allege that Kwon committed fraud by hiding a weakness in TerraUSD’s design that made it susceptible to a large-scale collapse of the coin. Mr. Kwon denies these charges. He was visiting Montenegro when an arrest warrant was issued and he was subsequently detained on suspicion of possessing false documents.
A lower court in Montenegro initially approved Kwon’s extradition, but won an appeal in November 2022, citing insufficient grounds. South Korea’s High Court later overturned that ruling in December and approved extradition requests from the United States and South Korea.
Mr. Kwon again objected to the ruling through his defense team, saying that the court failed to sufficiently investigate the details of the case in the face of political pressure. An appeals court ruling this week sided with Kwon, revoking his previous extradition approval due to “serious breaches” of legal procedures.
The court said it lacked clarity and justification for the Supreme Court’s ruling and that the reasons were unsatisfactory and “cannot be understood.” The case was sent back to the lower court for a retrial and new ruling.
According to the seesaw legal ruling, Mr. Kwon, who is currently serving a four-month sentence in Montenegro for possessing false documents, will be able to stay for the time being. But the threat of extradition is far from over.
On the other hand, former Terraform Labs CFO Han Chang-jun lost his court appeal and was extradited to Korea early this week to stand trial for the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.
Although Dokwon has now succeeded in buying himself more time to decide his fate, prosecutors are determined to bring in the man they believe is responsible for masterminding the largest cryptocurrency fraud scheme in history and making an example of him. .