Montenegrin officials have granted Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon bail in the travel document forgery case. Kwon will be freed from jail on a supervised €400,000 ($436,000) bail pending trial.
Do Kwon Out On $460,000 Bail
The man who stands accused of masterminding the implosion of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022 is set to be released from custody in Montenegro.
According to the May 12 announcement, the Basic Court in Podgorica accepted a request made by Do Kwon’s attorneys on Thursday to cough out 400,000 euros ($436,000) to have him put under house arrest instead of being in jail.
The court also agreed to release Terraform’s former chief financial officer Chang-joon Han on a similar €400,000 bond. Under the bail conditions, Kwon and Han will remain under surveillance and are barred from leaving their apartments. If the house arrest is breached, the bail will be put in a “special section” of the court’s working budget, the announcement said.
The two were apprehended by Montenegro police at the Podgorica airport in March while trying to board a plane to Dubai. They reportedly possessed fake passports from Belgium and Costa Rica. They also had at least one genuine passport given by South Korea, their native homeland.
The prosecution initially fought the bail request, indicating that Kwon and Han have adequate financial means but no interest in staying in Montenegro. Local prosecutors now have three days to appeal the decision if they are unsatisfied with it.
Kwon’s Mounting Legal Troubles
The court decision today comes after Kwon and Han pleaded not guilty to charges of travelling with falsified documents and presented their defence at a Thursday court hearing.
After legal proceedings regarding the forgery case in Montenegro are concluded, Kwon faces extradition to the U.S. or South Korea. The disgraced founder faces criminal charges in both countries for his role in the fall of the Luna token and TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin, an event that sent ripples throughout the crypto industry and set off a series of high-profile bankruptcies.
As ZyCrypto reported, South Korean authorities recently seized Kwon’s personal assets worth $176 million, including a series of imported vehicles, bank deposits, cryptocurrencies held at a digital currency exchange, officetel, and an apartment complex in Seoul.