Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, which ran the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister token LUNA, was apprehended in Montenegro on Thursday while attempting to board a flight to Dubai using forged documents.
Prosecutors in the United States charged Kwon with eight criminal counts, including securities fraud and conspiracy, for his alleged role in the demise of TerraUSD and LUNA, which wiped out approximately $40 billion in value from the cryptocurrency market.
We can’t confirm where Kwon will be sent because he is currently facing criminal charges in both the United States and his home country of South Korea. Both countries appear to want Kwon extradited.
According to a spokesperson for South Korean prosecutors, they are in talks with “related parties” about extraditing Kwon to the country as soon as possible.
The spokesperson did not say where Kwon would be transferred from Montenegro, how long it would take, or who would be involved.
Kwon has been under investigation for the past 11 months, following the Terra/LUNA collapse, which resulted in the loss of approximately $40 billion from the cryptocurrency market.
Kwon tweeted in mid-September, “I am not ‘on the run’ or anything similar – for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.”
His whereabouts were unknown as of late September, and Interpol issued a red notice requesting that law enforcement agencies worldwide search for and arrest him. Kwon was ordered by the South Korean government to surrender his passport or risk having it revoked.
Do Kwon stated in October that the charges levelled against him by South Korean prosecutors are unjustified and politically motivated.