Crypto fugitive Do Kwon sentenced to four months in Montenegro
Do Kwon is taken outside of court on June 16
By Anna Cooban, CNN
London (CNN) — Kwon Do-hyeong, also known as Do Kwon, the disgraced former crypto boss who is wanted in the United States and South Korea on fraud and other charges, has been sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro.
A court in the southern European country sentenced Do Kwon and another South Korean national, Han Chang-Joon, Monday to four months behind bars after they were found guilty of falsifying documents, a spokesperson for the Basic Court in Podgorica told CNN. According to Reuters, Han was previously the finance officer of Terraform Labs, a blockchain platform founded by Kwon.
The two men were arrested in late March while trying to board a flight from Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, to Dubai.
Authorities found and confiscated two Costa Rican passports, two Belgian passports and two identity cards from the former crypto executives.
Their sentences include the 85 days they spent in detention, the court said in a statement.
Terraform Labs was behind the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister coin Luna. Both coins lost their value in a matter of days in May 2022, wiping about $40 billion from the crypto market and setting off panic across the sector.
In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Kwon and his company with defrauding investors, saying he had misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD.
Kwon has also been charged with fraud in South Korea, as well as with breaches of the country’s capital markets law. He said in October that he didn’t believe the charges were legitimate, and claimed they were “politically motivated.”
Prosecutors in Seoul told CNN in December that the crypto boss was believed to be hiding out in Serbia. Kwon has repeatedly claimed on Twitter that he is not “on the run,” but refused to disclose his whereabouts, citing worries about his personal security.
The court in Podgorica said Monday the sentence would be written and delivered to Kwon and Han within the following 30 days. The men will be able to appeal the court’s decision within eight days of receiving the letter.
The-CNN-Wire
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