Montenegro Court Overturns US Extradition Decision
Kwon Do-hyung, CEO of Terraform Labs, who caused significant damage to the cryptocurrency market due to the Terra and Luna crash, will be extradited to South Korea instead of the United States. Local U.S. media and foreign press described the news of Kwon's extradition to South Korea as a "twist" and reported it promptly.
On the 7th (local time), according to local media in Montenegro, the Podgorica High Court overturned the decision to extradite Kwon to the U.S. and decided to extradite him to South Korea.
Earlier, on the 5th, the Montenegro Court of Appeal accepted Kwon's appeal and overturned the original ruling by the Podgorica High Court that had decided on extradition to the U.S. The Court of Appeal stated that the South Korean Ministry of Justice had requested extradition three days earlier, on March 24 of last year, compared to the U.S., and judged that the High Court's decision to extradite Kwon to the U.S. violated provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act. Previously, Kwon's legal counsel had also argued that, legally speaking, extradition to South Korea was appropriate.
Thus, the order of extradition requests became a decisive factor in the decision on Kwon's extradition country. It is analyzed that the High Court had no choice but to accept the higher court’s ruling.
However, the Podgorica High Court did not disclose the grounds for overturning the decision to extradite Kwon to the U.S. and deciding to send him to South Korea.
Kwon himself is reported to have strongly preferred going to South Korea rather than the U.S., likely due to differences in the severity of punishments between the two countries.
Kwon, who is estimated to have caused losses exceeding 50 trillion won to investors worldwide due to the Terra and Luna crash in 2022, is expected to face harsher penalties if extradited to the U.S. The U.S. applies the principle of cumulative sentencing, assigning sentences for each individual crime, making it possible to receive prison terms exceeding 100 years. In contrast, South Korea’s maximum sentence for economic crimes is about 40 years, which is less severe than in the U.S.
Kwon is unlikely to file another appeal against the current decision, having already appealed the U.S. extradition ruling and achieved the desired outcome this time.
However, regarding the extradition procedure, the final approval authority lies with the Montenegro Minister of Justice, so it remains to be seen whether the minister will fully accept the court’s decision. Notably, Andrija Milovi?, Montenegro’s Minister of Justice, has previously emphasized the U.S. as "our most important foreign policy partner" concerning Kwon’s extradition, indicating a preference for extradition to the U.S.
U.S. local media also eagerly reported on Kwon’s extradition to South Korea.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote, "The Montenegro court has decided to extradite cryptocurrency tycoon Kwon Do-hyung to South Korea," calling it "a twist overturning the earlier decision to send him to the U.S." Bloomberg News also described the ruling as "the latest twist in the legal saga of the Terra collapse case, which wiped out at least $40 billion (about 53 trillion won) of investor assets and caused significant damage to the digital asset market."
Meanwhile, Kwon caused losses exceeding 50 trillion won to investors worldwide and fled South Korea in April 2022. He was arrested and detained in Montenegro last March on charges of using a forged passport. Both South Korean and U.S. prosecutors have investigated Kwon and requested his extradition from the Montenegro Court of Appeal, which currently holds his custody.
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