Former Terraform Labs chief financial officer Han Chang-joon was extradited from Montenegro to South Korea on Feb. 5, according to a statement by the police on a Montenegrin government website. Han was identified only as J.C.H. in the statement, but an unnamed police spokesman confirmed his identity to Reuters.
Han was arrested with former Terraform CEO Do Kwon at the airport in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica on March 23. They had been attempting to use forged Costa Rican passports to board a private jet heading to Dubai. According to the Montenegrin police statement:
“J.C.H. was today handed over to the competent judicial and police authorities of South Korea by NCB Interpol Podgorica officers and the Special Police Unit, for the purpose of conducting criminal proceedings for several criminal offenses related to fraud.”
Oddly, the police statement said that Han is facing a life sentence in South Korea, which is more severe than the sentence Kwon is threatened with, according to a South Korean newspaper. A report in KBS World stated that Kwon may be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.
Han and Kwon served four months in prison in Montenegro for falsifying their travel documents.
Država Crna Gora je danas postupila po zamolnici Južne Koreje, i po odluci Ministarstva pravde predala Haan Chang Joon-a nadležnim organima njegove matične države. pic.twitter.com/OvQ1qNyxr1
— Ministarstvo pravde Crne Gore (@PravdaCG) February 5, 2024
They had been living in Serbia, where Kwon had set up a business in spite of an Interpol “Red Notice” for his arrest issued in South Korea.
Kwon was charged in connection with Terraform Labs’ stablecoin ecosystem collapse in May 2022.
Related: Do Kwon could serve prison in both US and South Korea, prosecutor says
Their arrests led to competing calls for the extradition of Kwon, who so far remains in Montenegro. After various legal maneuvers, a court in Montenegro ruled in December to extradite Kwon to the United States, where he faces eight charges, including commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has joined in Kwon’s request to delay proceedings in its complaint against Terraform Labs and Kwon until his arrival. The agency had unsuccessfully requested a summary judgment in the case in November. Terraform Labs filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Jan. 21.
In his trial for fraud in South Korea, Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong, also known as Daniel Shin, blamed the Terraform collapse on the operation of the protocol “external attacks carried out by Do-hyung Kwon [Do Kwon].”
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