Han Chang-joon, formerly the chief financial officer of Terraform Labs, has been extradited from Montenegro to South Korea, as confirmed by a police statement on the Montenegrin government website. Although identified as J.C.H. in the statement, his identity was corroborated by an unnamed police spokesman speaking to Reuters.
Han, along with former Terraform CEO Do Kwon, was apprehended on March 23 at Podgorica Airport in Montenegro's capital. Their attempt to board a private jet destined for Dubai using forged Costa Rican passports led to their arrest. Per the Montenegro police statement, Han, also known as J.C.H., was handed over to South Korean authorities for prosecution on various charges related to fraud.
Interestingly, South Korean authorities have indicated that Han faces the possibility of life imprisonment, a more severe penalty compared to Kwon's potential sentence. Kwon, according to a South Korean newspaper, may face up to 40 years in prison. After spending four months incarcerated in Montenegro for passport forgery, both individuals resided in Serbia, where Kwon established a business despite being subject to an Interpol "red notice" for his arrest in South Korea.
Kwon's charges stem from the collapse of the Terraform Labs stablecoin ecosystem in May 2022. The subsequent arrests sparked extradition requests from multiple jurisdictions, with Kwon's extradition rights remaining in Montenegro. Following legal proceedings, a Montenegrin court ruled in December to extradite Kwon to the United States, where he faces eight charges, including commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation.
Moreover, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has joined Kwon's plea to postpone the complaint process against Terraform Labs and Kwon until his extradition. Despite the agency's unsuccessful bid for summary judgment in November, Terraform Labs filed for bankruptcy in the United States on January 21. In a fraud trial in South Korea, Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong, also known as Daniel Shin, attributed the collapse of the Terraform ecosystem to an external attack orchestrated by Do-hyung Kwon (Do Kwon).
