Crypto Fugitive Do Kwon Freed From Montenegro Prison

Do Kwon is being released from prison in Montenegro. (photo: x @whynotpump)

JAKARTA - Do Kwon, a fugitive cryptocurrency from South Korea, has been released from prison in Montenegro while the country's Supreme Court is considering extradition requests from the United States and South Korea.

According to a Bloomberg report, he was released on Saturday, March 23. The Supreme Court suspended the extradition of Terraform Labs co-founders to South Korea, suspending a low-level court ruling.

Terra founder Kwon is currently facing fraud charges in South Korea and the United States stemming from Terra Luna's fall, resulting in a loss of around US$60 billion (Rp942, 1 trillion) in market value in 2022.

This literally made me cry, Freedom for Do Kwon 🤍 pic.twitter.com/COl0ropgmy

— Kurma 🧩🐂 (@whynotpump) March 24, 2024

This literally made me cry, Freedom for Do Kwon pic.twitter.com/COl0ropgmy

"We released Do Kwon from prison because his regular prison term for traveling under fake documents ended. Since he was a foreigner and his documents were detained, he was taken to be interviewed by the police directorate for foreigners, and they will handle him further," said Montenegro prison director Darko Vucvic.

The decision to release Kwon is reportedly from the Supreme Court Council, which will review decisions that could grant or reject extradition to South Korea of its home country. In South Korea, the sentence is relatively lighter than in the US, where prosecutors sought to try Kwon over TerraUSD's fall, an algorithmic stablecoin worth US$40 billion by 2022.

Kwon's lawyer Goran Rodic also confirmed his release. According to state TV, his passport was detained to prevent him from leaving the country. Then on Saturday, Kwon was transferred to a shelter for foreigners, as reported by state TV, citing Rodic, who showed plans to appeal to the court for Kwon to remain free until the extradition verdict.

The Supreme Court's actions follow challenges by the main prosecutor in the Balkan country, who cited procedural errors in a ruling in favor of South Korea's request. Extradition to one of the countries awaits further consideration by the court, indefinitely after the announcement on Friday.

If extradited to the United States, the Terraform Labs co-founder is likely to face eight criminal charges filed by prosecutors in March 2023. Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 for using fake travel documents with his colleague, former Terraform Labs chief financial officer, Han Chang-joon.

Authorities from the US and South Korea are submitting requests for extradition competing to sue Kwon on charges of fraud in their respective countries, but no final decision has yet been made.