PODGORICA -- Montenegro has extradited a business partner of Do Kwon, a South Korean entrepreneur known as the "Cryptocurrency King" who is wanted in both the United States and South Korea for his alleged role in the loss of investments worth more than $40 billion.
Kwon and his business partner Hon Chang-joon, who have been in custody in Montenegro for most of the past year, were sentenced by a court in June 2023 to four months in prison for traveling with forged passports after they tried to board a plane to Dubai.
Police said on February 5 that Hon Chang-joon was handed over to South Korean officials at the airport in Podgorica and was to be flown back to his home country based on an international warrant issued by Interpol.
Kwon remains in custody in Montenegro while officials decide whether he will be extradited to South Korea or the United States.
Kwon said in his defense at the time that he did not know the document he was using to travel -- a Costa Rican passport he applied for while in Singapore -- was forged.
A Montenegrin court on November 24 said Kwon had agreed to be extradited to South Korea but that the final decision as to which country he will be extradited rests with Montenegro's Justice Minister Andrej Milovic. That decision has yet to be made.
TerraformLabs, a company founded and headed by Kwon, was behind the stablecoin TerraUSD that collapsed in May last year, shaking the cryptocurrency market.
Kwon was subsequently charged in the United States for what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calls "orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto-asset securities fraud."
The U.S. District Court in Manhattan has issued an eight-count indictment against Kwon for securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy. His firm recently filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States.
In his native south Korea, Kwon is wanted for fraudulent unfair trading and fraud.
Co-founder of TerraformLabs Daniel Shin was indicted in South Korea in April for violations of capital markets law.