A court in
Montenegro has once again granted bail to Do Kwon, the disgraced co-founder of Terraform
Labs accused of fraud in South Korea and the US, after an
appeal by the local prosecutors fell through. In an announcement
on Friday, the Basic Court in Podgorica said it had re-adopted the bail
terms set on May 12 that states that Kwon and Terraform Labs’ Chief
Financial Officer, Han Chang-Joon, each pay 400,000 euros (US$428,241).
Furthermore,
according to the bail terms, the local police would keep the duo under strict
supervision, and none is allowed to leave the apartment where they are
confined. Failure to comply, the announcement added, both would forfeit their
bail terms.
Kwon and Han were
reportedly on the run following an investigation into the collapse of
Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency projects, TerraUSD
and Terra LUNA, in May 2022, which wiped out more than $40 billion from the
cryptocurrency space. The two, both South Korean nationals, were arrested
at Podgorica Airport in March while attempting to leave Montenegro using
fake travel documents.
In May, the Basic
Court in Podgorica granted them bail, but it was later appealed by the
prosecutors and annulled by the upper court on the basis that the defendants’ property had not been sufficiently assessed. However, on Friday, the decision
was overturned.
“The court
appreciated the fact that they are persons who are not Montenegrin citizens, that is why it accepted their statements about the value of the property they
own, which were supported by concrete evidence,” the Basic Court said
(Google-translated).
According to a
local newspaper, Vijesti, lawyers representing Kwon and Han recently submitted
documents regarding the defendants’ financial status as evidence to the courts.
More Time Needed to Authenticate ‘Fake Documents’
Furthermore, the court
said it needed sufficient time to verify the authenticity of the Belgium
passports and identity cards Kwon and Han were found with. Earlier, the pair had their passports confiscated in South Korea.
The prosecutors in
the case have been given three days to appeal the court’s latest decision, with
the next hearing set for June 16.
In February, the
US federal securities regulators charged Do Kwon for engaging in commodities, securities and wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud investors in
market manipulation. Similarly, the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Kwon for operating a ‘multi-billion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud’.
