Authorities to seek extradition of crypto fugitive Do Kwon

Officials will seek the extradition of fugitive crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon, prosecutors told AFP yesterday, after the Terraform founder was arrested in Montenegro and hit with US fraud charges.

Mr Kwon, 31, whose full name is Kwon Do-hyung, has been accused of fraud over his firm’s dramatic collapse last year, which wiped out about US$40 billion of investors’ money and shook global crypto markets.

He was arrested at the Podgorica airport in Montenegro on a South Korean warrant, the country’s interior ministry said on Thursday.

Soon after, the US charged him with eight counts, including securities fraud and wire fraud, which followed a lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In South Korea, where Mr Kwon is wanted for violations of the country’s capital markets act, authorities confirmed yesterday that they would seek his extradition.

“Prosecutors will take steps to repatriate Kwon Do-hyung. We are working on the process,” Kim Hee-kyung, a spokeswoman for the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, told AFP.

Mr Kwon reportedly flew from South Korea to Singapore ahead of the company’s crash in May last year.

In September, South Korean prosecutors requested that Interpol place him on the red notice list across the agency’s 195 member nations, and also revoked his passport. But questions about his whereabouts intensified after the Singapore Police Force said that he was not in the country.

Montenegro officials said on Thursday that he had “used falsified travel documents from Costa Rica” during passport control for a flight to Dubai. Inspection of their luggage also found travel documents from Belgium and South Korea, while Interpol checks discovered that Belgian documents were forged, the interior ministry added.

Many investors lost their life savings when Mr Kwon’s Luna and Terra entered a death spiral, and South Korean authorities have opened multiple criminal probes into the crash.

South Korean police said it would collaborate with the country’s prosecutors as they seek Mr Kwon’s extradition.

“As an organisation that works closely with the Interpol, we will actively cooperate with the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office,” national police official Jeong Beom-seok told AFP.

South Korea is a member of the European Convention on Extradition and Montenegro is also a signatory, the justice ministry said in a statement.

“The justice ministry will proceed with the extradition process in accordance with laws and international agreements,” it added.