Now leaving it to the government to decide whether he should be handed over to the United States or South Korea, the courts of Montenegro approved, on Friday, November 24, the extradition of Do Kwon, South Korean founder of the cryptocurrency earth. “All legal prerequisites for [the suspect’s] extradition are met,” the Podgorica High Court said in a statement.
Seoul and Washington both claim the entrepreneur for his role in the fraud linked to the collapse of his company in 2022, which caused investors to lose some $40 billion.
Arrested in May 2022 after several months on the run
The founder of Terraform, real name Kwon Do-hyung, had been on the run for months, after leaving South Korea, then Singapore, before his company went bankrupt in May 2022. He was arrested on March 24 in Montenegro for using a false passport.
As he is wanted by several countries, the Podgorica High Court said that, according to the law, the Montenegrin Minister of Justice should decide which one has priority.
Justice Minister Andrej Milovic refused to reveal which country Do Kwon would be deported to, but called the extradition “political.” “The United States is our most important foreign policy partner. We want to sign a bilateral extradition agreement as soon as possible in order to create a legal framework for future extraditions,” he said on TV channel TV Vijesti.
Since his arrest in Montenegro, Do Kwon has been a source of controversy on the country's political scene. During the campaign for the legislative elections in June, a controversy broke out after interim Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic and his allies accused the current Prime Minister, Milojko Spajic, of maintaining links with him.
