Terra’s Do Kwon Says US Extradition Possible by Mid-March
Kwon #Kwon
(Bloomberg) — Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon could be extradited to the US by mid-March to face charges that he orchestrated a $40 billion cryptocurrency fraud scheme, his lawyer said.
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Kwon, currently in custody in Montenegro for traveling on a fake passport, is seeking to delay a Jan. 29 trial in a US Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit making similar allegations against him and Terraform. He said he wants the civil trial put off until at least March 18 so he can participate.
“Mr. Kwon’s extradition process in Montenegro is in its final stages, and Montenegro could order extradition at any moment,” his lawyer, David Patton, said in filing late Thursday in Manhattan federal court. “Accordingly, we understand that Mr. Kwon could be in the United States as soon as the middle of March.”
Kwon is subject to extradition requests by both the US and South Korea, which has also charged him criminally. The decision of which country he’ll be sent to will be made by Montenegrin officials based on that country’s laws.
A March extradition to the US for Kwon would come just a few months after a jury convicted FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried of fraud. The implosion of Singapore-based Terraform’s TerraUSD stablecoin shook the crypto world in the spring of 2022 and played a role in the collapse of FTX.
Kwon is under indictment by the Manhattan US attorney’s office, which also prosecuted Bankman-Fried. According to prosecutors, Kwon deceived investors about aspects of the Terra blockchain, including its technology and the extent to which it had been adopted by users.
Patton told US District Judge Jed Rakoff that a delay in the SEC would give Kwon “a realistic possibility” of attending the SEC trial.
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The case is US v. Terraform Labs, 23-cr-01346, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with addition detail from filing, background.)
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