Reputed "cryptocurrency king" South Korean Do Kwon has been released from a Montenegrin prison after completing a four-month sentence for forgery and transferred to a center for foreigners outside the capital to await the outcome of an extradition battle.
The 32-year-old founder of TerraformLabs is being sought by U.S. and South Korean authorities for his alleged role in capital market and securities fraud involving assets worth some $40 billion.
TerraformLabs was behind a cryptocurrency called TerraUSD, which collapsed last May dealing a blow to digital-currency markets.
Kwon and a business partner who was handed over to South Korea in February were detained at Podgorica airport with fake Costa Rican passports in March 2023 as they were trying to board a private plane to Dubai.
Kwon's four-month prison sentence on the forged-passport charge concluded on March 23, allowing the transfer from a prison in the central city of Spuz to a shelter for foreigners near the capital.
The Montenegrin courts have issued a tangle of contradictory decisions since U.S. and South Korean officials requested his handover in the days after his detention last year, heightening concerns that officials in this Balkan hub of organized crime might balk at helping bring him to justice.
Kwon, described as Kwon Do Hyeong in Montenegrin judicial documents, appeared destined for transfer to South Korean custody this week before Montenegro's Supreme Court Council on March 22 postponed his extradition two days after what appeared to be a final rejection of his appeal.
Escorting Kwon during the transfer, his lawyer Goran Rodic complained that the placement in the shelter was "illegal" because the court ordered that he be allowed his "freedom" to defend himself and await the extradition procedure's outcome.
Rodic said Kwon's defense team will file a complaint with an administrative court to overturn the restriction.
Kwon's documents were confiscated by the court on March 22 in an effort to prevent him from leaving Montenegro.