United States secures extradition of cryptocurrency executive Do Kwon from Montenegro
In a significant turn of events, Montenegro's Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, has approved the extradition of Terra founder Do Kwon to the United States. This decision was made after evaluating requests from both the U.S. and South Korea.
The final decision came in December 2024, following several court rulings and delays. The Minister of Justice had the power to make the ultimate decision and, after careful consideration of several criteria, decided to extradite Kwon to the United States.
The evaluation process considered factors such as the severity and location of the crime, the order of submission of official documents, and the possibility of further transfer of Kwon to another country. This decision was made while simultaneously rejecting the request from the Republic of Korea.
Prior to this, in August 2024, the Montenegro Supreme Court had postponed Kwon's extradition to South Korea. The Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the extradition pending review in October 2024. However, by December 2024, the Minister of Justice decided to extradite Kwon to the United States.
Kwon, who had previously challenged Montenegrin authorities' decisions to extradite him on multiple occasions, was released and transferred to an immigration center in March 2024. On December 25, the court dismissed Kwon's latest appeal to overturn the extradition.
As a result, Kwon is expected to remain in the immigration center until extradition or further developments. It is worth noting that Kwon spent four months in a local prison on charges of using forged documents before being transferred to the immigration center.
In a separate development, Montenegro arrested the co-founder of the cryptocurrency pyramid scheme FutureNet in September. This incident underscores the country's commitment to combating financial crimes in the digital space.
Following his extradition, Kwon pleaded guilty to fraud charges in August 2025 and is scheduled for sentencing in December 2025. The specifics of his sentencing and future developments remain to be seen.
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