Lawyers want to prevent extradition of Terraform Labs boss
2 min readIt has been almost two weeks since Do Kwon was arrested. At the end of March, authorities arrested the Terra founder in Montenegro. Since then, the 32-year-old has been in custody there. In addition to his home country South Korea, the USA is also trying to have him extradited. basis is one legal action the US regulator SEC. She accuses Do Kwon of securities fraud worth billions.
His lawyers are now objecting to this. The SEC is exceeding its powers. Opposite to the South Korean news agency Yonhap News argued the defenders that Terraform Labs, the Singapore-registered company behind the collapsed cryptocurrency LUNA, went global. US investors would form only a small proportion.
However, that is enough for the SEC to file a lawsuit. Because for the authority, the securities laws of the USA also apply to companies that address US citizens from abroad with their services. The SEC has published several guidelines on this in the past.
Crypto token LUNA: security or not?
Where Do Kwon will be sentenced depends on which country Montenegro extradites the 32-year-old to. The United States has good chances, after all, there has been an extradition agreement since 2019. A comparable agreement does not exist with South Korea. However, joint membership of the international police organization Interpol could lead to a compromise. In addition, the trial against Terra in South Korea is already in full swing. Co-founder Daniel Shin recently had to testify in court.
Regardless of delivery, one question will decide Do Kwon’s fate: is the LUNA token a security or not? Classification as security would make the further process much easier, says lawyer Koo Tae-on opposite Forkast. Law enforcement agencies in Seoul are reportedly already looking into the issue. In the US, the SEC’s response should be easy. For her boss Gary Gensler, “all tokens except Bitcoin” are securities anyway.
