The Montenegro Basic Court of Podgorica sentenced Do Kwon, the disgraced co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, and his associate CFO Han Chang-joon to four months’ imprisonment for document forgery Monday.
Additionally, the court ordered the confiscation of two Costa Rican passports, two Belgian passports, and two identity cards allegedly belonging to Kwon and Han.
Judge Ivana Becic of the Montenegro Court explained the verdict and the relatively lenient sentence, encouraging dissatisfied parties to file an appeal within eight days of receiving the written verdict.
Both Kwon and Han have been placed in 30-day pre-trial detention by the Basic Court, and the prison terms include the time they have already spent in custody, as indicated by the verdict.
The court has 30 days to officially notify both the prosecution and the defense of the verdict. Defense lawyer Goran Rodic stated, “Once we receive the verdict in writing, we will consult with our clients regarding a possible appeal.”
Kwon and Han have been sentenced to six months in custody detention as the Montenegrin court reviews extradition requests from South Korea and the United States. This is due to the Terraform Labs executive facing criminal charges related to the dramatic collapse of the crypto assets TFL created in May 2022, which resulted in the loss of approximately $40 billion in investments.
Last week, the defendants pleaded not guilty before the Basic Court. Kwon told the judge that he believed the agency that provided their passports had issued legitimate ones. He argued that if he had known the passports were not authentic, he would not have traveled to multiple countries using them.
Both Kwon and Han expressed their desire for the trial not to be prolonged and disclosed that they would not pursue a reinvestigation of their Costa Rican and Belgian passports.
Kwon and Han were arrested at Podgorica airport in March while attempting to board a private jet to Dubai. Montenegrin authorities acted on an international arrest warrant.
Following their arrest, authorities claimed to have found forged Costa Rican passports, a different set of Belgian passports, laptops, and other devices in Kwon and Han’s luggage.
In the days leading up to his arrest in Montenegro, Kwon maintained that he was not “on the run,” even though South Korean authorities had already requested Interpol to include his name in the agency’s red notice list.
