Montenegrin Court Rejects Do Kwon’s Extradition Appeal

A Montenegrin court has rejected an appeal from Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, against his extradition to South Korea. The Appellate Court of Montenegro upheld a previous decision allowing Kwon’s extradition, citing that South Korea’s extradition request had arrived before the United States’. Kwon, who has been held in Montenegro since his arrest in March 2023 for using falsified travel documents, may face multiple criminal charges if extradited to South Korea. Despite the ongoing extradition process, the criminal case against Kwon in the U.S., where he is accused of eight felony counts, is expected to proceed. The collapse of Terraform Labs, a firm Kwon was involved in, in May 2022, contributed to a downturn in the cryptocurrency market, resulting in several other companies going bankrupt. It remains uncertain what legal options Kwon’s lawyers have to fight his extradition to South Korea, as the government has been imposing severe penalties on individuals involved in crypto-related offenses following Terra’s collapse.