"Kwon, Must Decide on Appeal Within 3 Days"
Over 100 Years Imprisonment Possible in US
Possible Appearance at New York Trial on 25th Next Month
Kwon Do-hyung, the key figure behind the cryptocurrency 'Terra·Luna' crash, will face trial in the United States.
The Montenegrin daily newspaper Pobjeda reported on the 21st (local time) that the Podgorica High Court in Montenegro has decided to extradite Kwon to the United States. The court announced, "Kwon Do-hyung will be extradited to the United States, where he is charged with crimes committed in the field of financial operations."
Earlier, Andrija Milovic, Montenegro's Minister of Justice, stated in a local broadcast interview last November regarding Kwon's extradition country, "The United States is our most important foreign policy partner," indicating a preference for extradition to the U.S.
Kwon's local legal representative, lawyer Goran Rodic, repeatedly argued that the decision on the extradition country should be made by the court, not the Minister of Justice, and advocated for extradition to South Korea instead of the United States. He emphasized that a purely legal judgment should be made, excluding the political judgment of the Minister of Justice.
However, the court ruled that while the Minister of Justice should generally be the decision-maker in criminal extradition procedures, since Kwon agreed to a simplified extradition procedure, the court is the decision-making authority. The basis for the court's decision to extradite to the United States has not been disclosed. It is also reported that the court rejected South Korea's request for Kwon's extradition.
If Kwon is extradited to the United States, he is expected to receive a heavy sentence. While South Korea's maximum sentence for economic crimes is about 40 years, the U.S. applies a cumulative sentencing system where sentences for individual crimes are added together, making it possible to receive more than 100 years in prison. Previously, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who was convicted last month for embezzling billions of dollars of customer funds, is expected to receive a de facto life sentence of over 100 years at his sentencing hearing in March this year.
Earlier, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil lawsuit in February 2022 against Kwon and Terraform Labs, accusing them of "organizing a multimillion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud," and the New York federal prosecutors indicted him a month later on eight charges including fraud and market manipulation. The SEC lawsuit trial is scheduled to begin on March 25 at the Southern District Court of New York, so if Kwon is extradited to the U.S., he may attend the trial.
The estimated damage to global investors from the 2022 Terra·Luna crash exceeds 50 trillion won. The decision on Kwon's extradition comes 22 months after he disappeared to Singapore in April 2022, just before the incident broke out. Regarding this, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a court spokesperson said Kwon must decide whether to appeal within three days.
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