Terra News
Court Reapproves Bail for Do Kwon and Terraform Labs’ CFO
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The Basic Court in Podgorica posted on Friday that it had reaccepted the bail posted by Terraform Labs cofounder Do Kwon and co-defendant Han Chang-joon who were accused of attempting to flee the country using falsifying travel documents. The Korean citizens were arrested earlier in March at the Podgorica airport and charged for committing the criminal offense of document forgery, court filings show. Kwon and Chang-joon were taken into custody and charged but the pair denied the charges in the first hearing. The duo's legal representative, Branko Anđelić, requested bail for their clients which the court agreed to on May 12.
The High Court in Podgorica, however, annulled the first-instance decision of the Basic Court to accept the bail proposal following an appeal of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica and extended the detention of the pair. In the statement communicating the cancelation of the bail, the court asked for more details on the finances of the former Terraform Labs executives.
“The Basic court should now make another decision, taking into account what the High Court ruled. There is no legal limit to how many motions can follow between the respective judges in deciding on bail for the two South Korean nationals.” the court's spokesperson Marija Rakovic said at the time.
In latest developments at the end of last week, the Basic Court in Podgorica issued a new decision to accept the bail in the amount of €400,000 ($426,000) each.
“When making this decision, the court took into account the evidence on the financial situation of the defendants provided by their defense counsel, the seriousness of the criminal offense for which the defendants are reasonably suspected, their personal and family circumstances, as well as the financial situation of the persons providing bail, and the opinion of the prosecution representative. Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica,” the Podgorica Basic Court said in a statement.
The court also ruled that the local police monitor the Korean citizens while they are held under house arrest awaiting trial on June 16. Violating the supervision measures would amount to forfeiting the bail agreement in which case the defendants will be placed in custody.
“If the defendant escapes or violates the imposed measure of supervision, the court's decision will determine that the value given as surety is entered in a special section of the budget for the work of the courts, while the defendant, in the event thsat they do not come to the court's orderly summons and do not justify their absence, will be placed in custody.”
The court also provided a 3-day window for “the unsatisfied party” to appeal the second decision referring to the Montenegro prosecutors who appealed the initial bail proposal on May 18. Worth noting, the timeline of the case is still unclear given the court didn’t specify how long it will take to confirm the authenticity of travel documents in question.
Kwon remains a person of interest both in South Korea and the US where he has been accused of several charges including fraud, market manipulation and violation of securities law. Prosecutors in both jurisdictions requested his extradition from Montenegro shortly after his arrest. He is separately wanted by the Interpol which issued a warrant for his arrest and also the defendant of a lawsuit filed by the US markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
