A court in Montenegro on Monday sentenced the founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs
Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon has been found guilty of using a forged passport by a court in Montenegro.
Do Kwon and another citizen of South Korea were sentenced to four months in prison.
Disgraced Terraform Labs founder imprisoned
The disgraced founder of the collapsed Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, was convicted for using fake documents and sentenced to four months imprisonment by a court in Montenegro. The announcement of the imprisonment was made on Monday by the Basic Court of Podgorica.
Kwon’s colleague and former Chief Financial Officer Han Chong-Joon was charged with him and received the same sentence.
Kwon and Han were arrested in March in Montenegro while they were attempting to travel to Dubai through a private jet. The Costa Rican and Belgian passports, and identity cards of the duo were seized, the court said.
Kwon told the Montenegro court that he wasn’t aware that the passport he was travelling with was forged and he instead blamed a chinese-named agency.
Kwon informed the Montenegro Basic Court that third-party “agencies” provided him with his allegedly fake passports and travel documents, including a Costa Rican passport, according to a report published on June 17 by the South Korean news site Segye Ilbo.
Few weeks ago, the court had granted a €400,000 bail to Kwon and Han. This came after an initial bail granted in May which was voided by an upper court upon appeal by the prosecutor that the property of the accused hadn’t been duly assessed.
The Basic Court also noted that the time spent in detention since March 23 will be factored in the sentence.
“The court found they were guilty of the criminal act of forging identification documents,” said Kwon’s lawyer in Podgorica, Goran Rodic.
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Interpol on hunt
South Korea had asked Interpol in September to circulate a “red notice.” This notice was to the effect that the 195 member nations of the agency was to find and apprehend Kwon.
Kwon was believed to have hidden in Serbia but quickly moved to Montenegro after South Korean investigators found his hideout and asked Serbian authorities to arrest him.
In February, US Securities regulators charged the Terraform founder with securities fraud, with federal prosecutors also charging him with fraud charges.
The Basic Court has confirmed that it would be keeping Kwon and his associate in “extradition custody” for six months pending the time the authorities consider an extradition request by South Korea. The US has also asked that Do Kwon be extradited.
Kwon and five other colleagues are wanted on allegations of fraud in relation to Terraform Labs and TerraUSD stablecoin’s implosion in May 2022.
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