Do Kwon requests a delay of his US trial as he still can’t leave Montenegro
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Do Kwon, the former CEO of Terraform Labs, recently requested a delay for his upcoming US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) trial. The trial, which is to be held in US court, needs to be delayed as he is still being held in Montenegro, according to his request.
🚨#Terra Update: Co-founder of #TerraformLabs, #DoKwon, potentially facing extradition to the US by mid-March. Currently in #Montenegro custody, he's linked to a $40bn crypto #fraud scheme. Seeking trial postponement to March 18 for participation
Stay tuned for more #CryptoNews pic.twitter.com/us2jQv6VpM
— Paweł Łaskarzewski (@PawelSynapse) January 16, 2024
Do Kwon unable to leave Montenegro as his case sees a retrial
Do Kwon’s appeal for extradition to either the US or South Korea has been successful, but for the time being, Terraform Labs’ former CEO remains stuck in the small Balkan country as he waits for the local legal proceedings to end.
The situation saw complications as the Montenegro Appeals Court ordered a retrial due to certain procedural issues.
Meanwhile, in the US, both Do Kwon and Terraform were charged with defrauding investors in crypto schemes by the SEC, the country’s securities watchdog. Do Kwon was in hiding for a long time following the crash of Terraform Labs’ Terra blockchain until his arrest at the Montenegrin International Airport on March 24, 2023. He was then taken to court in Podgorica on May 11 of the same year.
After the approval of the extradition appeal, Do Kwon was supposed to be taken to the US for his trial, which was set to start in late January. However, his legal counsel said that the retrial in Podgorica is unlikely to be over in time for him to travel to the US and appear in court in time for the trial. Instead, they believe that Do Kwon is unlikely to be extradited until late February or maybe even March.
The judge has yet to decide whether the trial will be rescheduled
If the request for delay is not approved, the trial will have to start without Do Kwon present. In this case, his legal team had requested that his inability to appear and testify be seen as “not unduly prejudicial to him,” given the fact that he has no say in the matter.
As for Kwon’s situation in Montenegro, he was initially sentenced to spend four months in prison for forging documents — a sentence that the court passed in late 2023. Since then, both Do Kwn and the US SEC have filed for the US federal judge to make a decision in their favor without having to go through the trial.
Both parties claimed that the other side did not argue their case sufficiently. For now, however, both parties are waiting for the US District Judge Jed Rakoff to decide whether to move the trial date or not.
The SEC said that it is willing to accommodate scheduling conflicts, proposing April 15 as a fair date for the trial to start, while Kwon’s lawyers sought a delay until at least March 18. They also added that they would not seek further adjustments even if Kwon does not get extradited by that time.
