Do Kwon’s US extradition is cleared by the Minister of Justice of Montenegro

Terraform creator Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States, Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Božović said Friday.

The US and South Korean governments have both sought to take Kwon into custody to face criminal charges related to the 2022 collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin Terra/Luna system, which started a series of high-profile collapses, including FTX.

Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 and sentenced to a few months in prison on passport forgery charges, has been fighting his extradition to the United States for more than a year. Various courts in the country have ruled in favor of the US or South Korea taking custody of the former crypto boss.

In his declaration on Friday, Božović said his decision followed the country’s Supreme Court ruling that the conditions for approving an extradition had been met.

“Under the judgment of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice took into account all the facts and circumstances and assessed criteria such as the seriousness of the criminal acts, the place of execution, the order of submission of the request, the citizenship of the wanted person, the possibility of further extradition to another country, as well as other circumstances,” the statement reads.

The U.S. bid met those criteria, the statement said.

Friday’s announcement is just the latest in a series of back-and-forth decisions about where to send Kwon. The Court of Appeal in Montenegro ruled in August this year that Kwon should go to South Korea.

The legal fallout for Terra also continues in the US; last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission charges are settled with Tai Mo Shan, a subsidiary of Jump Crypto, alleging that Tai Mo Shan sold LUNA as collateral. The company will pay $123 million as part of the settlement.

Editor’s note: The Montenegrin government statement was translated into English.