LUNA, USTC victims’ justice could depend on whether Do Kwon is extradited, lead prosecutor says

South Korean authorities want the co-founder and former CEO of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, to be extradited to South Korea, citing that “it would best serve the victims of the TerraUSD (USTC) and LUNA token collapses.

Also Read: South Korean prosecutors ask Binance to block Terra founder Do Kwon’s $69 million Bitcoin

South Korean prosecutors push for Do Kwon extradition

From the report, the prosecutors, led by Dan Sung-han, are probing the crash of the two tokens that saw almost $40 billion erased from the Terra ecosystem. In an interview with the WSJ, they claimed that since most of the crimes for which Kwon is answerable occurred in South Korea, the investigation would achieve more if the accused was repatriated.

Given the nature of this incident, we think investigating the case in South Korea would be the most efficient way of bringing justice.

As reported, Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro on March 23 and later indicted on charges of forging documents. Since then, South Korean authorities and those in the US have been pushing for his extradition. Notably, Kwon, a South Korean citizen, is also wanted by Singapore authorities.

Factors determining Do Kwon’s extradition

In a press conference following the arrest, Justice Minister Marko Kovač of Montenegro said that a decision on Kwon’s repatriation would hinge on “several factors.” For starters, the severity of the criminal offense would play a role, as would the location and time of the offense.

Reportedly, no extradition treaties exist between Montenegro and Singapore or South Korea. Nevertheless, the country has an old extradition agreement with the US, with historical records of repatriating American citizens.  

In late April, another Terraform Labs co-founder, Shin Hyun-Seong, was indicted by South Korean officials, alongside nine other people, on charges of “fraud, breach of trust, and embezzlement” around the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

According to the Korean daily KBS World, the accused were, and still are, answerable for earning unlawful profits of approximately $350 million (460 billion Korean won). If extradited, Kwon would also face the exact charges in his home country with a possible jail term of up to 40 years, according to Sung-han.

Notably, Terra was among the earliest cryptocurrency companies which brought the concept of algorithmic stablecoins to the limelight. The ecosystem toppled after the de-pegging of its native stablecoin TerraClassicUSD from the USD in May 2022. The action triggered a snowball crisis across the crypto sphere, and the effects are still felt to day.

Also Read: Terra Classic supporters want USTC peg to the dollar restored, a bullish catalyst for TerraUSD price