Terra Founder’s Bail Approved in Montenegro Passport Forgery Case After Higher Court Decision

Terra Founder’s Bail Approved in Montenegro Passport Forgery Case After Higher Court Decision

In a recent announcement on Friday, it was revealed that the Montenegro court handling the passport forgery case of Terra founder Do Kwon has accepted his bail request of 400,000 euros ($428,000). This comes after a higher court annulled a previous approval due to inadequate assessment of Kwon’s finances in the initial decision.

Kwon, along with former Terra executive Han Chang-joon, was arrested in March in Montenegro on charges of attempting to travel with falsified documents. Authorities in South Korea had been actively seeking Kwon following the collapse of his multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency enterprise in May of the previous year. Both South Korea and the United States have since requested Kwon’s extradition to face criminal charges after his trial in Montenegro.

Initially, the basic court in the capital city of Podgorica had approved a bail request from Kwon’s legal team for the same amount. However, this decision was later appealed by the prosecution, leading the higher court to determine that the initial approval lacked a thorough assessment of the defendants’ assets, backed by concrete evidence.

“The court acknowledged the fact that they are non-Montenegrin citizens, which is why it accepted their statements regarding the value of their owned property, supported by concrete evidence,” stated the basic court in its Friday announcement.

The case also involves the verification of the authenticity of travel documents possessed by Kwon and Han, which requires cooperation from authorities in Belgium. If found guilty, the accused individuals could face a maximum prison sentence of five years, according to the court. Contrary to the prosecution’s perspective, the court asserted that a bail amount of 400,000 euros “cannot be considered insignificant in relation to their property.”

The two South Korean nationals are scheduled to appear in court again on June 16, while the prosecution has a three-day window to appeal the bail decision.