The high court in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, has decided to repatriate Kwon to the U.S., not to Korea. The court said Kwon will be extradited to the U.S. to face trial on fraud charges. According to the court spokesperson, Kwon can appeal within three days. Goran Lodich, Kwon’s local rice-rate agent, said the ruling was illegal and expressed his intention to appeal. The decision came 11 months after Kwon was arrested for using a fake passport in Montenegro in March last year. The decision came 22 months after Kwon fled to Singapore just before the Terra-Luna crash. Last year, U.S. federal prosecutors indicted Kwon on a total of eight charges, including securities fraud and product fraud, claiming that he misled investors about the stability of the Terra blockchain. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a complaint against Kwon and Terraform Labs for securities fraud in a civil suit related to the Terra-Luna crash. The Korean prosecution issued an arrest warrant against Kwon in September 2022 on seven charges, including violation of the Capital Markets Act. Kwon reportedly agreed to repatriate him. As both Korea and the U.S. have requested extradition of Kwon, the Montenegro court has been weighing where to repatriate him. However, Korea’s extradition request was not accepted. The ruling raised the possibility that Kwon could appear at the SEC’s fraud trial, which begins with jury selection on April 25. If Kwon is extradited to the U.S., he is expected to face a heavy sentence. The maximum sentence for economic criminals in Korea is about 40 years, but since the U.S. punishes sentences on individual charges, the sentence can be more than 100 years in prison. Kwon is the main culprit who caused more than 40 billion dollars in damage to investors due to the collapse of his virtual asset Terra and Luna. Kwon is suspected of continuing to issue Terra and Luna without informing investors even though he is aware of the risks of the Terra and Luna’s collapse. After first fleeing to Singapore in April 2022, just before the Terra and Luna crashes, he moved to the United Arab Emirates in September and stayed in Serbia in eastern Europe as the investigation began. He was arrested in March last year for trying to use a fake passport at Ford Gorica International Airport. Han Chang-joon, former CEO of Tsai Corporation, who was arrested with Kwon at the time, was deported to Korea by the Montenegrin authorities on the 5th.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
