Montenegro’s Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, announced on Friday that South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon will be extradited to the United States.

This decision followed the Constitutional Court’s dismissal of an appeal from Kwon regarding a Supreme Court ruling that tasked the Minister of Justice with determining whether the founder of two collapsed cryptocurrencies should be sent to the US or South Korea.

The Justice Ministry indicated that the decision on extradition took into account all relevant factors, including the severity of the alleged crimes, their location, and the sequence of extradition requests received.

“It was determined that the majority of legally established criteria favor the extradition request from the authorities of the United States, leading the Minister of Justice to approve this request while simultaneously rejecting the extradition to South Korea,” the ministry stated.

Kwon faces financial charges from both the US and South Korea.

In the United States, shortly after his arrest in Montenegro, prosecutors in New York charged him with fraud linked to his management of Terraform, the firm responsible for the digital currencies Luna and TerraUSD, which collapsed in 2022, resulting in billions of dollars in losses and a significant market downturn that obliterated investor capital.

Kwon’s legal troubles have also impacted Montenegro’s political landscape. Just days before last year’s parliamentary elections, reports surfaced of him reaching out to the then-Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, the former justice minister, and the Special State Prosecution, alleging that individuals from the cryptocurrency sector were financially backing the centrist political movement “Europe Now,” which is led by Milojko Spajic, who took office as prime minister post-election.

Abazovic confirmed receipt of the correspondence and called for an investigation. “Europe Now” dismissed the allegations as an attempt at political defamation. Prosecutors have questioned Kwon, and the investigation is still ongoing. Spajic referred to the accusations as a “serious abuse of state institutions” leading up to the election.

The public is still awaiting the outcome of the so-called “letter affair.”

In an interview with BIRN in October, Bozovic remarked that, while he could not interfere with the prosecution’s work, he hoped the matter would be resolved, even after Kwon’s extradition.

Following various rulings from the High Court in Podgorica regarding Kwon’s extradition—to the US, South Korea, or leaving it to the discretion of the Minister of Justice—the Supreme Court ruled on September 19 that the minister would ultimately decide the destination of his extradition.