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 sought to take custody of Kwon to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the Terra/Luna stablecoin algorithmic system in 2022, which started a series of high-profile collapses, including that of FTX.
Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 and sentenced to a few months in prison for passport falsification, has been fighting 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 former cryptocurrency executive.
In his statement on Friday, Božović said his decision came after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the conditions for approving an extradition had been met.
“Taking into account the ruling of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice considered all the facts and circumstances and evaluated criteria such as the seriousness of the criminal acts, the place of execution, the order of submission of the application, the citizenship of the wanted person, the possibility of further extradition to another country, as well as other circumstances,” the statement said.
The US offer met these criteria, according to the statement.
Friday’s announcement is just the latest in a series of back-and-forth decisions about where Kwon should be sent. Montenegro’s Court of Appeal ruled in August this year that Kwon should travel to South Korea.
The legal consequences of Terra also continue in the United States; Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges with Tai Mo Shan, a subsidiary of Jump Crypto, alleging that Tai Mo Shan sold LUNA as a security. The company will pay $123 million as part of the agreement.
Editor’s note: The Montenegrin government’s statement was translated into English.
