South Korea or the USA: Where Will Do Kwon Be Extradited?
In late May, Montenegro's Minister of Justice, Andrej Milović, met with a delegation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This visit followed significant developments regarding the potential extradition of Terraform Labs' fugitive founder, Do Kwon.
According to a government portal, during the meeting, the SEC representatives discussed the core principles of the SEC's operations, which traditionally focus on investor protection and combating financial market fraud. The Montenegrin Minister of Justice was updated on the ongoing investigation into Do Kwon by the SEC.
The negotiations are expected to resolve the deadlock over Do Kwon's case. Currently, almost all decisions regarding his extradition from Montenegro are made by Andrej Milović.
South Korean crypto businessman Do Kwon was arrested at Podgorica Airport on March 23, 2023, while trying to fly to Dubai. One of the world's most wanted fugitives used forged documents under a fictitious name.
Kwon's Terraform Labs issued the Luna and UST tokens, which crashed nearly to zero in 2022. The collapse of Terra affected over 200,000 investors in South Korea alone, with total losses estimated at around $42 billion. As a result, authorities in South Korea, Singapore, and the USA sought Do Kwon's extradition. You can read more about the scammer's arrest here.
The prolonged legal process ended unexpectedly in late March 2024, when the Supreme Court of Montenegro halted the extradition process to South Korea. This decision diverged from earlier lower court rulings that had approved his extradition to his home country—a result that Kwon's defense lawyers had advocated. Meanwhile, U.S. law enforcement, which wanted to prosecute Do Kwon under American laws, remained inactive.
The Montenegrin Office of the Prosecutor General intervened, asserting that such decisions by lower courts were beyond their jurisdiction. The Prosecutor General maintained that only the Montenegrin Minister of Justice could make extradition decisions. The country's Supreme Court agreed with this view.
"Finally, it is now clear that the correct position of the Ministry of Justice is that once it is established that the criteria for extradition are met, the Minister of Justice is the sole authority who, based on legal rights, decides the country to which the person will be extradited," commented Andrej Milović on the Supreme Court's ruling.
Therefore, the decision on whether Do Kwon will be extradited to the USA or South Korea rests in the hands of the Minister. Future decisions by Milović will show how convincing the SEC's arguments were.
