Montenegro on Tuesday extradited a South Korean mogul known as “the cryptocurrency king” to the US, following a decision by its justice ministry earlier this month to accept a US request, while refusing a South Korean handover plea, the Balkan country’s authorities said.
Police said that officers of the National Central Bureau of Interpol in Montenegro handed over Do Kwon, the founder of the Singapore-based crypto firm Terraform Labs, to US FBI officers at the Podgorica airport border crossing.
“Today, on December 31, 2024, he was handed over to the competent law enforcement authorities of the United States of America and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” a police statement said.
Photo: AFP
The move follows a months-long legal saga in the case of Do Kwon. South Korea and the US had each requested Do Kwon’s extradition, and various courts in Montenegro over the past months had brought and overturned multiple rulings on whether to extradite Kwon to the US or his native South Korea.
He and another South Korean were arrested in Montenegro in March last year while trying to depart for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, using fake Costa Rican passports.
Kwon has served a prison term in Montenegro for using a fake passport.
Kwon was charged in the US with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York over a US$40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, which devastated retail investors around the world.
Kwon and five others connected to Terraform had been wanted on allegations of fraud and financial crimes in relation to its sudden collapse in May 2022.
TerraUSD was designed as a “stablecoin,” a currency that is pegged to stable assets like the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices.
However, about US$40 billion in market value was erased for the holders of terraUSD and its floating sister currency, luna, after the stablecoin plunged far below its US$1 peg.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS