'Tera' Kwon Do-hyung Demands Bail... "Cannot Disclose Assets"

Kwon Do-hyung, founder of Terraform Labs, who was indicted in Montenegro for using a forged passport, has requested bail from the local court.

On this day, Kwon and his associate Han were each granted bail requests at the first trial held at 12:30 PM on the 11th (local time) at the Podgorica District Court, the capital of Montenegro, on the condition of paying 400,000 euros (approximately 580 million KRW).

Kwon Do-hyung, CEO of Terraform Labs [Photo by Yonhap News]

Judge Ivana Be?i?, who presided over the trial, listed conditions for granting bail, including residence restrictions and attendance at court summons, to which Kwon and the others all agreed.

Kwon stated that if bail is granted, he would stay in the designated apartment until the trial concludes, would not flee, and would faithfully participate in the trial. This apartment is known to be owned by a corporation affiliated with Kwon’s local lawyer, Branko Anđeli?.

When asked who would pay the bail, Kwon replied, "My wife will pay." Regarding the scale of his assets, he said, "I have one apartment in Korea." However, he refrained from disclosing other assets in front of the media. In response, Judge Be?i? warned that Kwon must accurately disclose the scale of his assets to make a decision regarding bail.

Then Kwon said, "The apartment in Korea is worth about 3 million dollars (approximately 4 billion KRW) and is jointly owned with my wife." Regarding Terraform Labs, he said, "My company is not listed on the stock market, so it is impossible to know how much value it has."

Prosecutor ?aboti? opposed the bail request, arguing that the bail amount was far too low compared to their financial resources. He also emphasized that Kwon is a person wanted by Interpol with a red notice. The Podgorica District Court has not yet decided whether to grant bail.

Earlier, in March, Kwon was caught at Podgorica International Airport, the capital of Montenegro, after 11 months on the run. At that time, hiding in Serbia, he was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), using forged Costa Rican and Belgian passports at Podgorica International Airport to evade the investigation.

With Kwon being indicted in Montenegro, the possibility of his extradition to South Korea has diminished. Montenegrin authorities maintain the policy that those sentenced in their country must serve their sentence before they can be extradited to the requesting country.

According to local Montenegrin law, if convicted of forgery of official documents, the sentence ranges from a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 5 years imprisonment. However, if a 5-year sentence is imposed, precedent shows that typically only 6 months of imprisonment is actually served.

Kwon is the person who co-founded Terraform Labs with former Chai Corporation CEO Shin Hyun-sung. Despite knowing the risk that the prices of Terra and Luna could simultaneously collapse, he promoted Terra as a profitable coin, causing investors damages exceeding 50 trillion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.