Montenegro court jails ‘cryptocurrency king’ Do Kwon for four months

A COURT in Montenegro has sentenced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon, who is charged in the US with a multibillion-US dollar fraud, and his ally to four months in prison for using forged passports, local newspaper Vijesti reported on Monday (Jun 19).

A South Korean national, Kwon is the former CEO of South Korea-based Terraform Labs, the company behind the stablecoin TerraUSD that collapsed in May 2022, roiling cryptocurrency markets.

He was detained in late March along with Han Chang-joon, Terraform Labs’ former finance officer, as they tried to board a flight to Dubai at the airport of Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, and charged with forging official documents.

The basic court in Podgorica had placed them both in 30-day pre-trial detention.

Police said after arresting them they had found doctored Costa Rican passports, a separate set of Belgian passports, laptop computers and other devices in their luggage.

The sentence follows a court hearing last week at which Do Kwon dropped his request for checking authenticity of the Costa Rican passports after Interpol’s confirmation they were fake.

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South Korean and US authorities have sought the extradition of Kwon and Han and the handover of the computers.

Following Kwon’s arrest, the US District Court in Manhattan made public an eight-count indictment against him for securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy.

In late May the higher court scrapped a bail of 800,000 euro for the pair, saying it could not be taken as a solid guarantee, nor their promise they would not run away once released from detention. REUTERS