PODGORICA (Reuters) -Montenegro extradited Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to the United States on Tuesday, where he faces charges of misleading investors about the stability of the TerraUSD cryptocurrency and how an app used the Terraform blockchain.
Kwon was handed over to US law enforcement officers and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents at Podgorica airport, Montenegro’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Kwon denies wrongdoing.
The South Korean national is the former CEO of South Korea-based Terraform Labs, the company behind TerraUSD, a ‘stablecoin’ designed to maintain a constant price of $1, which collapsed in May 2022 and rocked the cryptocurrency markets stirred up.
Kwon, who was arrested in March 2023 while trying to leave Montenegro, is also wanted by South Korea.
Last week, Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic ordered Kwon’s extradition to the United States after the Supreme Court ruled that all legal conditions had been met.
The Justice Department said it had concluded that most of the legal criteria were in favor of the US extradition request. His lawyers said they had appealed Bozovic’s decision to the Constitutional Court.
Kwon and his company Terraform Labs were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2023 over the cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna, which authorities say caused about $40 billion in losses in the crypto markets.
A stablecoin is a digital asset that aims to maintain a stable price. Usually pegged to a currency, they are intended to be less volatile than other cryptocurrencies.
