Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, has pleaded not guilty in a Montenegrin court after being arrested for attempting to travel with fake documents on an international warrant, according to a report by Bloomberg.
During the hearing, Kwon and his former CFO, Han Chang-joon, requested to be released on bail, with each offering €400,000 ($437,240). However, prosecutor Haris Sabotic opposed the proposal, arguing that the defendants possessed sufficient financial resources and had no intention of remaining in Montenegro.
Kwon and Chang-joon were arrested in March 2023 while trying to board a private jet bound for Dubai at Podgorica airport. They were accused of engaging in illegal activities, resulting in international warrants and subsequent detention in Montenegro.
The pair was found in possession of travel documents from South Korea, Belgium, and Costa Rica. According to Bloomberg, Interpol and Montenegro confirmed that the passports from Belgium and Costa Rica were counterfeit. However, the defendants claimed in court that the Costa Rican passports they attempted to use were legitimate documents.
In April 2023, reports emerged that South Korean authorities discovered illegally obtained assets worth 414.5 billion won ($314.2 million) in Kwon’s possession and that of his associates, resulting in warrants for his arrest.
It was determined that Kwon was directly connected to approximately 91.4 billion won ($69 million) of these assets. However, authorities are unable to recover any of these funds. It is believed that Kwon converted most of the stolen funds into Bitcoin (BTC) through foreign cryptocurrency exchanges instead of investing in physical assets.
The legal situation surrounding Kwon’s troubles in multiple countries is complex. Kwon had been on the run for several months following the collapse of his TerraUSD stablecoin, also known as UST, in May 2020. The incident caused approximately $45 billion in losses in the cryptocurrency market and triggered an investigation into potential criminal activities. The repercussions were felt by numerous businesses, leading to closures and bankruptcy filings.
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