Summary:
- Do Kwon could face 40 years in prison if prosecuted and found guilty by a court in his home country of South Korea.
- Media reports confirmed that authorities in South Korea and the United States are contending over extradition rights after Montenegrin police arrested the Terraform Labs founder.
- An investigator who has led the probe into how Terraform Labs collapsed opined that prosecuting Kwon in South Korea is “more efficient”.
Media reports confirmed that authorities in South Korea and the United States are contending for the right to extradite Do Kwon after Montenegrin police arrested the Terraform Labs founder in March.
Kwon’s extradition has been a talking point since his arrest in March. Montenegrin police seized the fugitive as he attempted to fly to Dubai using fake travel papers. U.S. authorities hope to prosecute the former Terraform investor for defrauding American investors who held LUNA and UST, two tokens designed by the founder and other employees.
The Securities and Exchange Commission already charged Kwon with fraud and violations of securities laws though he tried to slow down regulators with a court motion.
Best Jurisdiction To Prosecute Do Kwon
Dan Sung-han who led South Korean efforts to uncover the factors behind Terra’s collapse, believes extraditing him to his native country would be the “more efficient” way to prosecute Do Kwon and deliver justice to Terra’s victims who lost at least $40 billion last May.
Given the nature of this incident, we think investigating the case in South Korea would be the most efficient way of bringing justice. We’ve collected a large swath of evidence pertaining to the TerraUSD case overall, much of which is information that cannot be easily obtained in the U.S.
“I believe the U.S. is willing to cooperate”, the South Korean investigator said, speaking to America’s request for Do Kwon’s extradition.
Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said, “We are ready to make the extradition to the country which is looking for him”.
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Prosecutors in South Korea have recently been trying to have Do Kwon extradited back to the country so he can face a possible 40-year prison sentence. Kwon is the founder of the M Puri Group, a major international art-trade firm, and fled the country after being accused of financial fraud in 2008.
Kwon is believed to have committed fraud totaling over 8.7 billion won, equivalent to around 7.7 million US dollars. The fraud has been described by South Korean authorities as “the biggest case in history,” and it is believed to have affected many citizens in the country.
In 2008, Kwon skipped the country and was believed to have been hiding in Japan. In 2015, a Japanese court rejected a request from the South Korean government to extradite Kwon from Japan. The court accepted the claim of Kwon’s defense team that he might not receive a fair trial in South Korea.
Now, prosecutors have asked the Japanese government once again to consider the extradition request. They have argued that conditions for a fair trial have been improved, citing the passage of a far-reaching anti-graft law in 2016 that protected whistle-blowers and provided smoother access to evidence.
The South Korean side is still awaiting a response from Japan. A 40-year prison sentence is possible if he is extradited. The M Puri Group, which Kwon founded in 2000, once had an international presence in countries such as France, Italy, and Japan. It is estimated that the fraud caused by Kwon’s actions may have affected more than 10,000 people.
In a statement released by the prosecutors, they said “We will continue to make all efforts for the extradition of Do Kwon to receive punishment for his crime, especially taking into consideration the victims of the fraud.”
