Publicly shared paperwork launched forward of the upcoming extradition of infamous crypto Ponzi schemer Do Kwon reveal the silly flip of occasions that led to his arrest and that of his compatriot, Joon Chang.
Trying to go away Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, on a personal jet in March of 2023, Kwon and Chang have been stopped at a border crossing once they introduced pretend Costa Rican passports. The pair have been making an attempt to fly to Dubai, the recognized dwelling of Changpeng Zhao (colloquially referred to as CZ), founder and former CEO of Binance.
After having their baggage confiscated and searched, additional problematic paperwork have been found, together with invalidated South Korean and Belgian passports which included completely totally different private info for the 2. Certainly, in line with these passports, Kwon was known as ‘Frederic Nguyen’ and Chang was known as ‘Thomas Wang.’
A number of the nations through which Do Kwon has been seen or are searching for his extradition.
Learn extra: Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon beats extradition once more
The pair’s South Korean passports have been run by a database which marked them as having Interpol crimson flags.
Decide isn’t swayed
As a protection, the duo acknowledged that Montenegrin authorities ought to instantly get in contact with Costa Rican immigration to show that their passports have been actual. Nonetheless, when the Montenegrin authorities did simply that, they have been instructed in no unsure phrases that the passports have been solid.
Kwon and Chang instructed authorities that not solely had they been assured by their Singaporean agent that the Costa Rican passports have been genuine, however that they’d reached out to the company once they realized there have been discrepancies on the Belgian passports, like utterly totally different names.
Towards the top of the publicly shared paperwork, the Montenegrin decide calls the defendants’ arguments “calculated makes an attempt to keep away from guilt” and states that “the accused carried these paperwork crucial to their scenario of their private baggage with out offering the courtroom with any logical rationalization for doing so.”
Kwon is predicted to be extradited to the US by the top of March and an identical, if not shorter timeline, is predicted for the extradition of Chang to the Republic of Korea.