Do Kwon, the founding father of Terraform Labs, which operated the so-called TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister token LUNA, was arrested in Montenegro Thursday morning after months in hiding whereas attempting to board a flight to flee Dubai with falsified paperwork.
Thursday evening — a couple of hours after Kwon was arrested on the airport in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.– the U.S. prosecutors charged Kwon with eight prison indictments, together with securities fraud and conspiracy, for his alleged roles in what worn out about $40 billion from the crypto market. Interpol additionally confirmed Thursday that the person detained in Montenegro is crypto fugitive Do Kwon, or Do-Hyung Kwon, who is needed in South Korea and the U.S. on fraud expenses, per CNN.
So, what’s subsequent to come back? We don’t know which nation Kwon can be despatched to as he now faces prison expenses in each the U.S. by the Justice Division and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and his native nation, South Korea. Nonetheless, the U.S. and South Korea each seem like searching for Kwon’s extradition. (We are going to maintain this in sight concerning how it might pan out.)
U.S. federal prosecutors reportedly mentioned they’d search Kwon’s extradition to New York, whereas their Korean counterpart can also be searching for Kwon’s extradition. A spokesperson of South Korean prosecutors instructed TechCrunch that they’re discussing with “associated events” about extraditing Kwon as quickly as attainable. The spokesperson, nevertheless, didn’t specify which nation Kwon can be shifted to from Montenegro, or how lengthy it’s prone to take, and the identification of the associated events.
Kwon is dealing with a myriad of prison proceedings. For the reason that Terra/LUNA collapse in Could 2022, a South Korean courtroom has issued an arrest warrant against him, and Interpol issued a red notice, a name to regulation enforcement worldwide, in September to seize Kwon, who mentioned in an interview with Coinage in August that he wasn’t charged with anything.
In October, South Korean prosecutors reportedly requested the native overseas affairs ministry to nullify Kwon’s passport except he returned that by Sept 15. (Kwon’s passport, which was not returned by then, seems to have been revoked.)
The Singapore-headquartered blockchain platform entrepreneur, who claimed he wasn’t on the run however whose location was unknown, registered his handle in Serbia by way of United Arab Emirates in December, according to reports. Most not too long ago, the U.S. SEC charged Terraform Labs and Kwon with defrauding U.S. traders who bought its crypto belongings – Terra and LUNA.