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The court in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, approved the repatriation of Terra ecosystem founder Kwon Do-do to Korea or the United States. Montenegro’s Minister of Justice will decide which country Mr. Kwon will go to.
Last Friday, a court in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, announced that it had approved the extradition of disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Kwon Do-do. The United States and South Korea are both seeking Kwon’s extradition, and it is now up to the Justice Minister to decide his fate.
Mr. Kwon and his colleague were found guilty.
Mr. Kwon was arrested at the Montenegro airport last March while trying to go to Dubai using a forged travel document.
Mr. Kwon was arrested along with his colleague Han Chang-jun. During the arrest, two Costa Rican and Belgian passports, Mr. Kwon and Mr. Jun’s ID cards, and digital devices including a laptop were confiscated.
Mr. Kwon and Mr. Jun were sentenced to four months in prison by the Basic Court of Montenegro. The two were found guilty of forgery.
After their convictions were handed down, Mr. Kwon appealed to overturn the court’s conviction for passport fraud. But his appeal was dismissed last week and his conviction was confirmed.
Extradition to Korea seems more likely
According to a Reuters report, the Podgorica High Court said Do-Kwon, a South Korean national, had agreed to be deported to South Korea in a summary procedure. But the final decision on where he will be deported lies with Montenegro’s Justice Minister. The decision on whether to extradite will be made only after Kwon completes his sentence for document forgery.
In September 2022, South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Kwon and charged him with violating the Capital Markets Act.
US and South Korea are competing for extradition
Now that an extradition order has been issued, the question is who will take custody of Mr. Kwon.
Mr. Kwon is a citizen of the Republic of Korea, and the state has issued an arrest warrant for him. However, U.S. federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Kwon on two counts each of securities fraud, wire fraud, product fraud, and conspiracy.
When the issue of extradition was raised, Justice Minister Marko Kovac explained:
“If we receive multiple extradition requests, determining which state to extradite the extradition request to will depend on a number of factors, such as the seriousness of the crime, where and when the crime was committed, and the sequence of the crimes. We have filed an extradition request and several other factors.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.