Terra Founder Do Kwon Expected to Be Extradited to the US: WSJ

Terra Founder Do Kwon is likely to be extradited to the United States rather than South Korea to face fraud and securities charges, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal.

Kwon has been held in Montenegro for months after being detained during an attempt to leave the country with a forged passport. Prosecutors in both South Korea and the U.S. have brought charges against Do Kwon stemming from the collapse of his company's stablecoin UST. Coinage was the first outlet to interview Do Kwon after the failure led to a $40 billion implosion.

A Montenegro court had previously approved Kwon’s extradition, but had deferred to Justice Minister Andrej Milovic for the final decision on whether he would be sent to the U.S. or South Korea. Milovic has privately decided on sending Kwon to the U.S., according to the Journal's sources. The Journal caveated its reporting by noting that Milovic has not yet announced his final decision and is "unlikely to do so until the country’s courts have ruled on a last-ditch appeal by Kwon against the court ruling."

“The public will be informed of the decision in a timely manner,” Milovic said in a statement to the Journal. The Journal's report also included comment from Kwon's lawyer in Montenegro, Goran Rodic, who said he was unable not confirm whether Milovic had already come to a conclusion on Kwon's extradition.

"I'm not excluding that kind of possibility," he told the Journal.

As Coinage has previously reported, Do Kown has denied committing fraud. Our two-part exclusive was the first on-the-record video interview with Kwon following Terra's $40 billion collapse in 2022. This year, we published a behind-the-scenes retrospective with previously unpublished footage from that interview to uncover more of Kwon's thinking in building Terra's algorithmic stablecoin, UST, which eventually broke from its $1 peg to fall to mere cents.

The company Do Kwon founded, Terraform Labs, is also facing a lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That suit is advancing regardless of where Do Kwon is extradited.

To support our community-owned outlet, own it with us, and unlock exclusive benefits, mint one of our Membership Passes today! Chat with Coinage in our Discord.

Disclosure: Terraform Labs is one investor among many in Coinage's production company Trustless Media.