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Terra Founder Do Kwon Back in Jail in Montenegro, Bail Revoked

source-logo  decrypt.co 24 May 2023 13:40, UTC

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has had his bail revoked in Montenegro, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The high court of Montenegro in Podgorica overturned a decision from two weeks ago to release Kwon and Terraform's former chief financial officer Han Chong-joon on €400,000 ($436,000) bail each.

At the time, the court had ordered that the men would be placed under house arrest in Montenegro while they awaited trial. Bloomberg reports that Kwon "remains in jail" now following today's decision. The decision to revoke bail on Wednesday also applies to Chong-joon, a court spokesperson told the news outlet.

Terraform CEO Do Kwon to Be Released on Bail in Montenegro

After the lower court granted Kwon and Chong-joon bail, the prosecution appealed the decision. Court spokeswoman Marija Rakovic told Bloomberg that the matter will now go back to the lower court.

Kwon and Chong-joon have been charged with forging official documents after trying to fly to Dubai from Podgorica in March with allegedly fake Belgian and Costa Rican passports. In court appearances so far, both men have maintained that the passports are genuine.

Apart from the forgery charges, the Kwon also faces criminal charges in the U.S. and South Korea. South Korea has had a warrant out for Kwon's arrest since September, alleging that he violated capital market laws.

In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Kwon for violating the registration and anti-fraud provisions of the securities and exchange acts.

The May 2022 collapse of Terraform Lab's ecosystem, which included its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and governance token Terra (LUNA), set off an industry-wide panic as other established firms crumbled.

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, broker Voyager Digital, and lender Celsius Network all filed for bankruptcy soon after Terra got wiped out. In the months that followed, crypto lender BlockFi and crypto exchange FTX also fell. They were less directly in Terra's blast radius, but still victims of the contagion it set off.

decrypt.co