- South Korean auth. fail to extradite Do Kwon.
- Might get extradited to the US soon.
- The Terra founder is still in Montenegro jail.
- Arrested in March 2023 for forged Puerto Rican passports.
Extradition of the infamous South Korean Crypto-Billionaire Do Kwon finally looks clear to the USA as the High Court of Podgorical has rejected the plea of Do Kwon’s lawyers and South Korean authorities to extradite him to his home country.
Do Kwon, if extradited to South Korea, could have still faced a 40-year sentence.
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Montenegro Court Allows Do Kwon’s Extradition
The High Court of Podgorical (capital of Montenegro) has finally ruled against South Korean authorities who were seeking Do Kwom’s extradition to their home country. The news was reported by Pobjeda.
Do Kwon’s lawyers were seeking an extradition to the South Korea and had cited th European Convention on Extradition along with Montenegrin Law on International Legal Assistance.
The extradition might take place to the USA as per the country’s extradition agreement with Montenegro.
What was the Case Against Do Kwon in Montenegro?
Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 for allegedly forging travel documents. He was charged with the same alongwith Terraform Lab’s finance officer Han Chang-joon.
Both of them allegedly spent several months in Serbia and were trying to flee to Dubai using fake Puerto Rican passports.
South Korea had earlier issued an Interpol Red Notice across 195 countries for Do Kwon.
How The World Witnessed Terra’s Rise and Fall in Just 4 Years
The Terra Ecosystem, developed by Terraform Labs and led by Kwon Do-Hyung (Do-Kwon), was a significant presence in the cryptocurrency world. Its cryptocurrency, LUNA, peaked at $119.2 before a dramatic collapse, with the ecosystem’s value exceeding $60 billion two weeks prior to the downfall.
History From 2018 To 2022
- 2018: Do-Kwon and Daniel Shin founded the Terra network to support the e-commerce payment app Chai, establishing Terraform Labs in Singapore.
- 2019: LUNA was introduced to investors through an initial coin offering.
- 2020: The Anchor Protocol was launched, followed by the algorithmic stablecoin UST, which later played a role in the ecosystem’s crash.
- 2021: LUNA’s price hit $90, marking a 58% gain in a single month.
- 2022: The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) was created, raising $1 billion for Bitcoin reserves to support UST. Despite significant investments in Bitcoin and AVAX tokens, UST’s de-pegging initiated the ecosystem’s collapse.
Chain of Events Leading to Terra’s Collapse
- De-Peg of UST: The first signs appeared with large volume sales of UST, which began to de-peg in May 2022, leading to drastic measures by LFG to stabilize the market.
- Burning UST to get LUNA: As UST’s value plummeted, holders converted their UST to LUNA, causing both assets’ prices to fall sharply.
- Shorting of LUNA: The sell-off of LUNA to exit the Terra ecosystem accelerated its price drop.
- Re-Launch and Failure: Attempts to revive the ecosystem with Terra 2.0 and the renaming of original assets to LUNC and USTC were unsuccessful.
Read Full Article: How The World Witnessed Terra’s Rise and Fall in Just 4 Years
