Kwon Do-hyeong, the disgraced co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, better known as Do Kwon, is likely to be extradited to South Korea to face investigation and trial for financial crimes. 

On Thursday, the Appellate Court of Montenegro said on its website that it upheld a ruling by the High Court to hand over Kwon to his native country, rejecting the U.S. appeal. 

The court said that its decision is legally binding, stressing that South Korea’s extradition request arrived earlier than that of the United States.

The move follows a months-long legal battle during which both South Korea and the U.S. had requested Kown’s extradition from Montenegro. 

Kwon, a 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 of last year for attempting to fly out of the country using a fake passport.