A Montenegro court has ruled that Kwon Do-hyeong, the disgraced co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, should be extradited to South Korea to face trial for financial crimes, reversing an earlier decision to send him to the U.S.

According to local media, the High Court in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica handed down the ruling on Thursday, two days after an appeals court overturned the High Court’s previous decision to extradite Kwon to the U.S.

On Tuesday, the Appellate Court of Montenegro announced its ruling, stating that South Korea’s request had been communicated via email in March last year and preceded the U.S.’ extradition request. 

Kwon has reportedly expressed his desire to be extradited to South Korea. Financial crimes in Korea carry a maximum sentence of around 40 years, but in the U.S. Kwon could receive a heavy sentence of over 100 years in prison.

The latest decision to send Kwon to South Korea is not yet final as the verdict can be appealed again and the European nation’s justice minister has the authority to decide Kwon’s ultimate destination. Montenegrin Justice Minister Andrej Milović has hinted at Kwon’s possible extradition to the U.S. 

Kwon, the key figure in the 2022 collapse of the TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies, had fled to Singapore, Dubai and Serbia before being arrested at Podgorica airport in March last year for attempting to fly out of the country using a fake passport.