Terraform creator Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States, Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Božović said on Friday.
The US and South Korean governments have both sought to take Kwon into custody to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the Earth/Moon algorithmic stablecoin system in 2022, which set off a series of collapses of high profile, including that of FTX.
Kwon, that was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 and sentenced to a few months in prison on charges of passport forgery, he fought his extradition to the United States for more than a year. Several courts in the country have ruled in favor of the United States or South Korea taking custody of the onetime crypto executive.
In his declaration on Friday, Božović said his decision followed the decision of the country’s Supreme Court that the conditions for approving the extradition had been met.
“With the verdict of the Supreme Court in mind, the Ministry of Justice considered all the facts and circumstances and evaluated the criteria such as the seriousness of the criminal acts, the place of execution, the order of presentation of the request, the citizenship of the requested person, the possibility of further extradition to another country, as well as other circumstances,” said the statement.
The US offer meets these criteria, the statement said.
Friday’s announcement is just the latest in a series of back-and-forth decisions about where Kwon should be sent. The Court of Appeal of Montenegro decided in August this year that Kwon should go to South Korea.
The legal fallout for Terra also continues in the United States; last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission established expenses with Tai Mo Shan, a subsidiary of Jump Crypto, accusing Tai Mo Shan of selling LUNA as a security. The company will pay $123 million as part of the settlement.
Editor’s note: The Montenegrin government statement has been translated into English.
