According to a tweet from Montenegro’s interior minister, Filip Adzic, on March 23, a guy suspected of being Terra Luna co-founder Do Kwon was arrested on the Balkan country’s territory. Since the statement, local news site Vijesti has established that the Twitter account used to make the announcement is from Montenegro’s interior minister and that the person apprehended was a South Korean national.
U PODGORICI UHAPŠEN JEDAN OD NAJTRAŽENIJIH SVJETSKIH BJEGUNACA
Crnogrska policija lišila je slobode lice za koje se sumnja da je jedan od najtraženijih bjegunaca, južnokorejski državljanin Do Kwon, suosnivač i izvršni direktor Terraform Labs sa sjedištem u Singapuru.
1/2— Filip Adzic (@filip_adzic) March 23, 2023
The same day, the CEO of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, was detained, according to local South Korean news agency Yonhap News Agency, which said that officials had confirmed this based on “photo data.” Han Mo, the former blockchain executive’s assistant, is said to have been detained with him in Podgorica. The Montenegrin government’s “fingerprint information,” according to the National Police Agency of South Korea, is still needed to prove the people detained are, in fact, Do Kwon and Han Mo.
“Montenegrin police have detained a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean citizen Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs.”
According to Adzic, a person with “falsified documents” was held at the Podgorica airport, and officials are awaiting formal identification. The person is thought to be the former “cryptocurrency king.” Geographically, Serbia is located north of Montenegro, and the two countries have the same boundaries.
In Serbia, where there is no extradition treaty between Serbia and South Korea, Kwon is allegedly been hiding since December 2022, according to South Korean authorities. Kwon was placed under Interpol red notice on September 26, 2022, for his claimed involvement in the $40 billion Terra Luna (LUNC) and Terra USD (USTC) ecosystem’s demise in May 2022. Regulatory officials in the US, Singapore, and South Korea are also looking for him.
According to reports, neither South Korea nor Singapore and Montenegro have extradition treaties. However, it does have a dated extradition pact with the US and has previously responded with requests to extradite US citizens.
Additionally, the nation consults with Interpol on extradition-related issues. Do Kwon has already spent a significant amount of time in the United States, but it is unclear if he is a citizen, a permanent resident, or has committed crimes against Americans for the purposes of future extradition proceedings.
Kwon was accused of organizing a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities scam involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 16, 2023. The American Department of Justice has also been looking into Kwon’s responsibility in the demise of the Terra Luna environment since March. Kwon hasn’t, however, had any criminal charges brought against him on American soil.
