WSJ “Indian plan delivered to U.S. ambassador in private”
Court “Korea claims first… The final decision is made by the minister”
It has been reported that Kwon Do-hyung, CEO of Terror Form Labs, a key figure in the cryptocurrency Terra and Luna incident, is expected to be extradited to the United States.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, the U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 7th (local time) that Montenegro’s Minister of Justice Andrej Milovic told the U.S. ambassador to Montenegro that he planned to send Mr. Kwon to the United States during a private discussion last month.
Prosecutors in Korea and the United States are trying to bring Mr. Kwon to court in their respective countries on charges of fraud and violation of securities laws in connection with the $40 billion Terra and Luna cryptocurrency crash that occurred in May last year.
The Podgorica High Court announced on the 24th of last month that the legal requirements for Representative Kwon’s extradition as requested by the Korean and U.S. governments had been met, and specified that the Korean Ministry of Justice had filed a request for extradition on March 29. The U.S. State Department stated that it had requested extradition in an official letter dated April 3.
However, it was said that the Montenegrin Minister of Justice will make the final decision on which country has priority for extradition after Kwon serves his four-month prison sentence.
Previously, at a press conference last March, Minister Milovic stated, “We will decide based on the severity of the crime, the location where it occurred, the order of the extradition request, nationality, and other external factors.”
Minister Milovic declined to comment on whether he had communicated such plans to the U.S. ambassador, but said in a statement, “We will inform the public of the decision in a timely manner.”
Mr. Kwon’s Montenegrin lawyer said that he could not confirm whether Minister Milovic had made the decision on the country to be extradited, and that “we are not ruling out the possibility.”
Mr. Kwon disappeared along with his close associate, Director Han Chang-jun, in September 2022, just before the Korean prosecutors issued an arrest warrant.
Prosecutors said that Kwon fled to Serbia, and they were arrested and detained by local authorities in March while trying to board a flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) using forged Costa Rica passports at Podgorica International Airport, the capital of Montenegro.
Hours after his arrest, federal prosecutors in New York indicted Kwon on eight counts of fraud.
Montenegro’s Podgorica District Court sentenced them each to four months in prison last June, and although CEO Kwon and others appealed, the second trial was dismissed last month due to lack of evidence.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.