Crypto Fugitive Do Kwon to Leave Jail, Face House Arrest in Montenegro

Prosecutors initially sought to block the move, claiming he was a flight risk.

Crypto's most famous absconder, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, will soon be released from prison and face house arrest under close police supervision, along with his former chief financial officer Chang-joon Han, after the duo were successfully able to post bail of 400,000 euros ($436,000) in Montenegro.

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In March, both Kwon and Han were arrested in the Balkan country while trying to flee to Dubai. The Terraform Labs duo were responsible for the $40 billion collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin Terra and Luna, which sent crypto markets spinning last year ahead of the FTX collapse.

Kwon, a South Korean national, told the court he was not guilty of document forgery or traveling with forged passports.

Kwon and Han's opponents initially fought the bail on the grounds that the pair had the money to quickly avoid jail and simply wanted to leave Montenegro. However, while Kwon and Han conceded they had millions and their wives would post the necessary payment, they offered to meet the court's preconditions. Namely, they "promised that if bail is set, they will not hide until the end of the criminal proceedings, that they will regularly respond to court summons, and that they will be available at the address provided by their defense attorney," said court documents.

For months, Kwon has argued he has not been on the run and that he has been cooperating with authorities. In court proceedings, his defense lawyer Branko Andjelic reiterated that Kwon and Han were not a flight risk.

Critics, however, are unconvinced, given Kwon's role in infamously avoiding an Interpol red notice while jocularly Tweeting from undisclosed locations around the world.