Do Kwon unlikely to be extradited before start of SEC trial

Manufacture Kwon’s attorneys told a US court docket on Feb. 26 that the Terraform Labs co-founder will no longer be in a bunch to back the initial hearings of the SEC trial.

The attorneys didn’t seek recordsdata from an adjournment and acknowledged the trial would per chance well presumably commence as scheduled on March 25 without Kwon’s presence, in accordance to court docket filings.

Unexpected complications

Kwon’s attorney, David Patton, acknowledged that Kwon, in the meantime in Montenegro, would per chance well no longer be extradited by the stop of March as a result of unexpected complications in the upright route of. He added that these have derailed earlier expectations of a transient extradition.

Patton acknowledged the extend is primarily attributable to “unanticipated mistakes” made by the Montenegrin court docket accountable of Kwon’s extradition case.

The submitting contains a declaration from Kwon’s Montenegrin protection attorney, Goran Rodic, which highlights several disorders with the excessive court docket’s extradition ruling.

Rodic criticized the Feb. 21 resolution, claiming it became primarily based mostly fully on unsuitable recordsdata relating to the timing of extradition requests by the US and South Korea. He also raised concerns over several procedural errors for the period of the upright route of.

Apt saga continues

Kwon became arrested by Montenegro in March 2023 for the use of falsified shuffle documents and has remained there since. The arrest came amid ongoing investigations following the collapse of Terra in Would possibly well presumably 2022, with Kwon’s whereabouts beforehand unknown.

Montenegro chanced on him guilty of possessing cast documents and sentenced him to four months in penal advanced. His extradition case has been ongoing in tandem.

The upright battle over his extradition involves both South Korea and the US. The 2 countries filed extradition requests with Montenegro following Kwon’s arrest.

The SEC’s lawsuit against Kwon and Terraform, filed in February 2023, and subsequent prison expenses by the US Criminal decent’s Do of job have positioned Kwon at the center of allegations intelligent billions in crypto asset securities fraud.

In December 2023, Settle Jed Rakoff granted summary judgment in prefer of the SEC, with the trial scheduled for late March 25.

Meanwhile, South Korea wants him extradited to face trial in his home country. Some of his oldschool buddies, including Terra co-founder Daniel Shin, have already confronted trial over fraud expenses.