South Korea’s National Police Agency requested Interpol’s help in bringing back Terraform Labs co-founder Kwon Do-hyeong in a letter written Thursday, a police representative told The Block.
The police sent the request via an electronic document to the General Secretariat of Interpol, but have not yet received a response from Interpol, the police spokesperson said. South Korea’s Justice Ministry is also separately seeking help from Interpol, local news agency Newsis reported.
Earlier this month, a Montenegrin court revoked Kwon’s extradition order in the United States, after his defense lawyers appealed, allegedly that the decision was made based on erroneous information that the United States had requested extradition before South Korea.
“The return of Do Kwon’s extradition to the United States for another court decision gave [us] the opportunity to ask for help and attention again,” the police spokesperson told The Block. “Given that Interpol, as an international law enforcement agency, maintains a cooperative relationship with its entity in Montenegro, we wanted to reiterate the fact that South Korea has requested [Kwonâs] extradition first, before the United States.”
The police representative stressed that the Korean agency has no direct influence on the extradition decision in Montenegro.
The former executive of Terraform Labs is wanted by US and South Korean authorities on fraud charges linked to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022, which wiped out some $40 billion in wealth in just a few days. investors.
Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro last March, accused of using a false passport to try to leave the country, and was sentenced to four months in prison in November.
Kwon has repeatedly denied accusations that he and Terraform Labs deliberately defrauded investors.
(Updated article with police comments and additional details throughout.)
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