Summary:

• Do Kwon’s lawyers asked the court to grant supervised bail conditions for both defendants – the TerraUSD founder and his colleague Han Chang-joon.
• Both Terraform Labs executives were arrested in Montenegro’s capital of Podgorica while trying to board a private plane bound for Dubai.
• The court will decide on June 16 whether to allow both Kwon and Han to pay $437,000 each as bail.
• Governments from South Korea and the U.S. want to extradite Kwon for financial crimes in Terra’s $40 billion collapse

“Not guilty” TerraUSD designer Do Kwon pleaded on Thursday to travel document forgery charges issued by Montenegrin authorities after his arrest.

Kwon was arrested in the country’s capital city Podgorica while trying to board a private plane bound for Dubai. The Interpol-wanted crypto founder was detained along with Han Chang-joon, another former Terra executive.

Not only did Do Kwon deny charges accusing him of traveling with a fake passport, his lawyers also asked for supervised bail and his release. Branko Andjelic, the defense lawyer, suggested releasing the Terra duo on a bail amount of 400,000 euros which is about $437,240 each.

However, the prosecutor Haris Sabotic, dismissed this proposal, stating that they have sufficient financial resources but no intention of staying in Montenegro.

The court will reconvene on June 16 to decide whether Kwon and Han will be released on bail or not. If denied bail and convicted on forgery charges in a subsequent trial, the pair could face up to five years in prison.

Still, possible Montenegro prison time pales in comparison to the sentence Kwon could serve if tried and convicted in South Korea.

Korean Prosecutors Argue Jurisdiction For Do Kwon’s Trial

Governments from South Korea and the U.S. want to extradite Do Kwon to prosecute him for financial crimes in Terra’s more than $40 billion collapse. While the U.S. and its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) already declared intent to prosecute, South Korean lead investigators believe it’s better to try Do Kwon in his home country.

A South Korean court could sentence Do Kwon to 40 years behind bars if found guilty of violating the country’s Capital Markets Acts.

In other news, Kwon might be moving funds around for a lengthy legal showdown with prosecutors from at least three jurisdictions – Montenegro, South Korea, and the U.S.

Seoul-based Professor Jaewoo Cho who has monitored Kwon’s wallet activity for over a year noted that one of his addresses recently moved $7 million in stablecoins.