Reuters: Do Kwon will be absent from the trial opening of the SEC fraud charges in the U.S. due to extradition delays

2024-02-27 12:39:11
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ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Reuters, due to delays in the extradition process in Montenegro, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon may miss the civil trial set for March 25 regarding fraud charges brought against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Kwon's attorney David Patton stated in a letter submitted to the Manhattan federal court that regardless of when Kwon is ultimately extradited, he will not seek to postpone the trial date. Patton had made a similar commitment in January.

It is reported that Do Kwon and his company Terraform Labs were sued by the SEC in February last year due to the collapse of the TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies in May 2022, which allegedly resulted in approximately $40 billion in losses for the crypto market. The SEC accused Terraform and Kwon of deceiving investors about the stability of TerraUSD and how a popular South Korean mobile payment application used the Terraform blockchain to settle transactions.

Kwon has denied all wrongdoing. He also faces related criminal charges in the U.S. and has been detained since his arrest in Montenegro in March last year. Last week, a court in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica stated that Kwon should be extradited to the U.S. rather than his preferred South Korea. Kwon is appealing this ruling, and his local lawyer Goran Rodic stated that the ruling was based on "incorrect" information, namely that the U.S. extradition request arrived before that of South Korea.

Rodic stated in a declaration attached to Patton's letter that due to "multiple unexpected errors" by the lower courts in Montenegro, the extradition process has taken far longer than expected, and he anticipates that Kwon will not be extradited anywhere before the end of March. In December last year, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is overseeing the SEC case, stated that Terraform and Kwon failed to register TerraUSD and Luna, violating U.S. law.

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