Montenegro prosecutors appeal against Do Kwon’s bail terms

Case files on the prosecutors’ appeal were sent to the Supreme Court in Podgorica for a decision.

Terra co-founder Do Kwon’s bail is now in question after the State Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal against it. Kwon is still wanted for extradition by South Korea and has criminal charges to answer in the United States.

On May 17, the State Prosecutor’s Office in Montenegro’s capital Podgorica appealed against the previous decision of the court to grant Kwon and Han Chang-Joon a release from detention on bail of 400,000 euros ($436,000) each.

The bail deal was agreed on May 12, with the court agreeing to let Do Kwon be put under house arrest instead of being taken into custody. It took only one day for the court to decide on Do Kwon’s lawyers’ proposal. According to the documents, the bail would be entered into a “special section” of the court’s working budget if the house arrest is compromised.

Kwon and Chang-Joon were arrested by Montenegrin authorities in March 2023 at Podgorica airport for allegedly using false documents. The two previously had their passports confiscated in South Korea. In 2022, the Terra ecosystem created by Kwon and Terraform Labs imploded as its native TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin depegged, erasing an estimated $40 billion in market value in days.

Kwon still has over 233.3 billion Korean won ($176 million) in personal assets frozen as part of ongoing criminal proceedings. South Korean prosecutors are seeking his extradition, and U.S. prosecutors have charged him with eight separate counts, including commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation.

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