Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon’s extradition to the United States has been approved by Montenegrin Minister of Justice Bojan Božović after Montenegro’s Constitutional Court dismissed the former executive’s appeal.
The Ministry of Justice simultaneously rejected the extradition of Kwon to his country of origin, South Korea. According to a translated statement from news outlet Vijesti, Montenegro’s Ministry of Justice wrote:
“It was concluded that most of the criteria provided by law support the request for extradition by the competent authorities of the United States of America.”
The decision to extradite Kwon to the United States follows a lengthy legal battle that took several turns, in which the decision to extradite the Terraform Labs founder was reversed several times.
Related: Montenegro court rejects Do Kwon’s extradition appeal
Do Kwon’s extradition reversed several times
Prosecutors from the US and South Korea requested the extradition of Kwon to stand trial for various offenses in each jurisdiction.
The High Court of Podgorica approved the decision to extradite Kwon in November 2023 but left the decision of which country should receive the embattled crypto founder to Montenegro’s minister of justice.
In May 2024, Kwon’s defense team successfully appealed the decision to extradite the former crypto executive — pushing the case back to Montenegro’s highest court.
Montenegro’s Appellate Court upheld a previous ruling by a lower court to extradite Kwon to South Korea in August 2024.
According to court documents from the Appellate Court, Kwon’s extradition to South Korea was to be expedited due to the lack of an appeal motion to the ruling.
However, the extradition case was sent back to the Montenegrin justice minister in September 2024 for deliberation after court officials said that Kwon met the conditions to be extradited to either the US or South Korea.
A decision on his extradition was reached on Oct. 17, but the decision was halted just one day later due to a pending appeal from the Terraform co-founder’s legal team.
The denial of the appeal and the approval from the Ministry of Justice to extradite Kwon to the US should mark the end of the multi-year legal proceedings.
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