PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro extradited Tuesday a South Korean tycoon nicknamed “the king of cryptocurrency” in the United Statesfollowing a decision earlier this month by its Justice Department to accept a U.S. request, while refusing the South Korean handover request, authorities in the Balkan country said.
Police said agents from the Interpol National Central Bureau in Montenegro handed over Do Kwon, the founder of Singapore crypto company Terraform Labsto FBI agents at the Podgorica airport border crossing.
“Today, December 31, 2024, he (Do Kwon) was handed over to the appropriate law enforcement authorities of the United States of America and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” a police statement said.
The decision follows a months-long legal saga in Do Kwon’s case. Both South Korea and the United States requested Do Kwon’s extraditionand various courts in Montenegro over the past few months have issued and overturned several decisions to extradite Kwon either to the United States or his home country.
He and another South Korean arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 as he attempted to leave for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, using fake Costa Rican passports. Kwon served a prison sentence in Montenegro for using a false passport.
Kwon was charged with fraud in the United States by federal prosecutors in New York over a $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency that devastated retail investors around the world.
Kwon and five others linked to Terraform were wanted on allegations of fraud and financial crimes related to the implosion of its digital currencies in May 2022.
TerraUSD was designed as a “stablecoin,” a currency pegged to stable assets like the dollar to avoid drastic price fluctuations. However, around $40 billion in market value was wiped out for holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister coin, Luna, after the stablecoin plunged well below its $1 peg.
