A prosecutor investigating Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon for alleged passport forgery in Montenegro has indicated he will not be extradited any time soon. The law enforcement official told South Korean media that the Montenegrin authorities intend to charge Kwon within a month, ruling out the possibility of him being handed over to other countries within the detention period.
Passport forgery investigation takes precedence over extradition requests in Do Kwon case
It may be some time before extradition proceedings begin for Do Kwon, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing the prosecutor working on the case of the Terraform Labs co-founder, who was recently arrested in Montenegro.
Judicial conviction of crimes that have taken place in Montenegro’s jurisdiction is a priority for authorities in the small Balkan nation, Haris Šabotić said in an interview in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica on Monday.
Šabotić is in charge of the local investigation against Kwon for alleged falsification of documents. The CEO of the company behind the failed terrausd stablecoin and luna cryptocurrency was detained on March 23 as he tried to board a flight to Dubai using a fake Costa Rican passport.
Kwon Do-Hyung, as his full name is in Korean, disappeared after leaving for Singapore in April 2022, just before the collapse of the two currencies ust and terra. He then fled to Serbia, where he allegedly registered a new company, before finally ending up in neighboring Montenegro.
The prosecutor noted that the forgery allegations are the subject of an ongoing investigation, and rejected previous media reports that Kwon had already been charged. After an initial detention of 72 hours, a Montenegrin court extended the measure to 30 days.
The goal is to charge Kwon within that period, Haris Šabotić further noted. “We don’t know how the situation will evolve after the accusation, but what is clear is that there is no possibility that the detainee will be handed over for another 30 days,” he added.
South Korea, the United States and Singapore are trying to secure Kwon’s extradition. While Šabotić declined to discuss the matter in detail as it is not up to the prosecution to decide on the applications, he stressed that the investigation of the fake passport case will be given priority, noting:
We can move to the next step only after the prosecution of this case is over. We are not interested in the issue of extradition.
If convicted of falsifying official documents, Do Kwon can receive up to five years in prison, under Montenegrin law. “If we file charges within 30 days, the court will decide,” Šabotić said in the interview that took place at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica. Kwon is currently being held in the Spuž detention center near the Montenegrin capital.
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image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Yonhap News Agency
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