Disgraced co-founder of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, won a major victory this week when an appeals court overturned a ruling of a lower court that would have seen him be extradited to the United States.
This is the second time that this has occurred, saving him from having to face a slew of civil and criminal charges.
The ruling
Back in December, a lower court in Montenegro had ruled that Kwon should be extradited to the United States rather than South Korea, despite being a native.
He is also faced with criminal charges in South Korea for his role in the collapse of the cryptocurrencies LUNA and UST, which wiped out about $60 billion in the crypto market.
The decision was appealed by Kwon and the initial ruling was declared deeply flawed by the Appellate Court of Montenegro due to which it was voided.
Weeks later, a lower court in Montenergo once again ruled that Kwon should be extradited to the United States.
Like the last time, the Appellate Court declared that decision to be flawed for the second time and canceled Kwon’s extradition.
It said that the ruling relied on significant oversights, flawed logic and a disregard for the existing laws due to which it was void.
The criticism
As a matter of fact, the latest ruling from the Appellate Court called out the conclusion of the lower court that the United States had requested Kwon’s extradition before South Korea.
Kwon is currently jailed in Montenegro due to his use of a fake passport. According to the lower court, the US prosecutors had requested Kwon’s extradition a day before their counterparts in South Korea.
It said that the request had been made in March 2023. However, email records showed that South Korean had beaten the US to the punch by several days.
According to the Appellate Court, these oversights, along with some other legal errors, are considered a violation of criminal procedure in the judgment made against the Terraform Labs’ co-founder.
The possibilities
Even though the second consecutive ruling by the high court is certainly in Kwon’s favor, it does not guarantee the ultimate outcome.
This is due to the fact that Montenegro does not have any limits on the number of times it is possible to retry such a case and re-appeal it.
It is now heading back to the lower courts in Montenegro for the third time. Regardless, this development shows that the US prosecutors are unlikely to get their way in this case for now.
Currently, Kwon is facing a federal criminal trial in New York and a lawsuit has also been filed against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC trial, which accuses him of orchestrating a fraud scheme worth billions of dollars via UST and LUNA, is scheduled to begin later this month, regardless of whether he is present or not.
Last March, he had been arrested at an airport in Montenegro with a forged Costa Rican passport, as he tried to travel to Dubai on a private jet.
He was sentenced to four months in jail, even though he denied having knowledge of the fake passport.