A Montenegro district court on Monday sentenced Terraform Labs chief executive officer Kwon Do-hyeong to four months’ jail for forging travel documents. The ruling comes after a week of confusion on the status of Kwon as his US$400,000 bail was reportedly overruled by a higher court that ordered a six-month maximum extension of Kwon’s detention while mulling his extradition to South Korea or the U.S.
See related article: Montenegro court approves second bail request for Terra-Luna founder Do Kwon
Fast facts
- The Montenegrin Basic Court in the country’s capital Podgorica said that two Costa Rican passports and two Belgian passports were confiscated from Kwon, along with two identity cards belonging to Kwon and Terra executive Han Chang-joon.
- Kwon was arrested at Podgorica airport on March 23 for allegedly attempting to fly out of the country using fake passports along with Han.
- Terraform’s algorithmic stablecoin and cryptocurrency project Terra-Luna collapsed in May 2022, wiping out over US$40 billion in market capitalization. Kwon is wanted in the U.S. and South Korea, where prosecutors accuse him of fraud, securities law violations and several other charges related to the collapse.
- Kwon has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him. He admits that mistakes were made in the Terra-Luna crypto project managed by his company Terraform Labs. However, he argues there was never any intent to deceive investors.
- The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office that is in charge of the investigation on Kwon and Terraform Labs has declined to respond to Forkast’s request for comment sent during Monday morning via text message.
See related article: From billionaire to Montenegro jail: The rapid rise and fall of Terra chief Do Kwon