International fugitive and self-proclaimed king of cryptocurrencies, Do Kwon, and his business partner Hon Chang Joon, who are being tried in the Basic Court in Podgorica for document forgery, emphasized that they believed their passports were legitimate.
After their hearing, Judge Ivana Bečić announced that she would deliver the judgment on Monday, June 19th.
They are accused of falsifying passports with which they intended to leave Montenegro on March 23rd, on a private flight to Dubai.
At that time, they were arrested at the Podgorica Airport for using fake passports from Costa Rica, and during inspection, false travel documents from Korea and Belgium were also found on Do Kwon.
Earlier, Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon for an international fraud amounting to 40 billion dollars through cryptocurrencies. Last year, Do Kwon’s cryptocurrencies, Terra and Luna, experienced a collapse.
Due to ongoing investigations and accusations of defrauding creditors, he is sought for extradition by South Korea and the United States.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in Podgorica ordered a six-month detention for Do Kwon and Chang Joon pending extradition. Within this period, the Montenegrin court must decide on their extradition to South Korea.
The security institutions in Montenegro do not know how Do Kwon and his accomplice entered Montenegro.
Testimony of Do Kwon
Do Kwon and Chang Joon were brought to court in a police van, from which they emerged with handcuffs, followed by numerous cameramen and Montenegrin journalists.
During the defense presentation, Do Kwon spoke to the court about how they obtained the Costa Rican passports, which they intended to use to leave Montenegro. According to his defense lawyer, Goran Rodić, the passports were obtained through an agency in Singapore.
“The documents were obtained through economic or investment citizenship. All of this was done by a well-known agency in the world and in Montenegro, and they obtained the passport in Singapore, where they entered regularly and completed the application,” said lawyer Rodić.
He also stated that Do Kwon acknowledged the Interpol report stating that their passports were not valid, as determined by the prosecutor.
“Do Kwon saw the Interpol report for the first time, stating that the documents they intended to leave Montenegro with were not valid. And as a reasonable person, he accepted this fact and did not insist on verifying the validity of the documents in Costa Rica.”
Do Kwon to be questioned by the special prosecutor
After the proceedings in the Basic Court are completed, Do Kwon will be questioned by the Special Prosecutor for organized crime.
Lawyer Goran Rodić stated that he received a notification that Do Kwon and Chang Joon would be questioned in detention “as citizens”.
Earlier, it was announced that the Special Prosecutor would question Do Kwon regarding the letter sent to Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, in which he revealed his financial ties to the leader of the “Europe Now” Movement, Milojko Spajić.
Abazović confirmed that he received the letter several days before the parliamentary elections held on June 11th.
Spajić dismissed the accusations that his movement was funded by Do Kwon or anyone from the crypto-community and accused Abazović of misusing institutions.
At the same time, he confirmed that he has known Do Kwon since 2018, and the last time they met was in November of last year.
Spajić’s party won the most votes and parliamentary mandates in the elections, so he should be appointed as the mandate holder to form the new government of Montenegro.
