The Terraform founder is dealing with mounting authorized instances in each Seoul and Washington over his alleged function in fraud linked to his firm’s dramatic collapse final 12 months, which worn out about $40 billion of traders’ cash and shook international crypto markets.
Kwon was arrested with a companion on the airport within the Montenegrin capital Podgorica final week after being discovered travelling with pretend journey paperwork.
“A meeting was held with diplomatic representatives of Korea, after which Korea handed over an extradition demand,” justice minister Marko Kovac instructed reporters in Podgorica, including that “the extradition of Do Kwon was requested also by the US.”
The minister didn’t provide any hints on the place Kwon finally can be despatched.
“We have two countries that requested extradition. We will see if there will be another country,” the minister stated, suggesting that one other request might come from Singapore sooner or later.
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“The citizenship of the person and other circumstances will be taken into account when deciding,” he added. Kwon, whose full identify is Kwon Do-hyung, was remanded on Friday together with a companion in custody for as much as 30 days over suspected doc forgery “due to flight risk”.
Kwon now faces two instances in Montenegro – the primary involving his alleged possession of solid paperwork and the second concerning his attainable extradition.
Following his arrest, South Korea vowed to hunt formal extradition.
The US additionally charged Kwon with eight counts for allegedly “orchestrating a multi-billion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud,” based on the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kwon reportedly flew from South Korea to Singapore earlier than his firm crashed in May final 12 months.
In September, South Korean prosecutors requested Interpol to put him on the pink discover listing throughout the company’s 195 member nations and revoked his passport.
Kwon’s TerraUSD was marketed as a “stablecoin”, which is usually pegged to secure belongings such because the US greenback to stop drastic fluctuations in costs.
But TerraUSD was an “algorithmic stablecoin” – not backed by belongings however as a substitute pegged solely to its floating sister forex, Luna. The two currencies went into freefall in May final 12 months.
Questions about Kwon’s whereabouts intensified after the Singapore Police Force stated he was not within the nation.
Montenegro authorities stated Thursday that Kwon and a companion had used “falsified travel documents from Costa Rica” throughout passport management for a flight to Dubai.
Inspection of their baggage additionally revealed journey paperwork from Belgium and South Korea, and Interpol checks confirmed the Belgian paperwork have been solid, Montenegro’s inside ministry stated.
Cryptocurrencies have come beneath growing scrutiny from regulators after a string of latest controversies, together with the high-profile collapse of the change FTX.
The digital forex sector has additionally been hit arduous by the demise of US crypto lenders Silvergate and Signature amid a string of banking failures which have rattled international markets.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com