Disgraced Terra (LUNA) founder Do Kwon is reportedly going to be extradited to the US after losing an appeal in a Montenegrin high court.
According to a new report by France 24, Kwon – the person suspected of being behind the multibillion-dollar downfall of the Terra ecosystem in 2022 – had his appeal thrown out by the Montenegrin Constitutional Court, which earlier in the year ruled that the conditions for his extradition have been met.
However, Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic still had to decide whether to extradite Kwon to the US or South Korea, both of which have pending charges against him.
As stated by the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice, according to the report,
“It was concluded that the majority of the criteria prescribed by law favor the extradition request from the competent authorities of the United States of America.
Consequently, the Minister of Justice issued a decision approving the extradition of Kwon Do Hyung to the United States, while simultaneously rejecting the extradition request from the Republic of Korea,”
Kwon, a South Korean native, was originally arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 after he was caught attempting to board a flight to Dubai with a fake Costa Rican passport.
Kwon is accused of masterminding a Ponzi scheme involving the stablecoin TerraUSD that led to over $40 billion worth of investor’s money being wiped out.
The dollar-pegged crypto asset – which at the time was following an automated, algorithmic system to keep its price steady – eventually collapsed after its stabilization mechanism backfired.
The Montenegrin Supreme Court originally ruled that Kwon is to be extradited to the US in February.
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