Do Kwon U.S. Trip Delayed until February and SBF Impossible to Defend

We have previously Observed the recent turn in fortunes of several of the former ‘crypto kings’: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven charges he was facing and might spend his entire life in prison. CZ stepped down from his post as CEO of Binance and pleaded guilty to money laundering charges as a part of the exchange’s settlement agreement with the DoJ and is now stuck in the U.S. until sentencing, which could see him face up to 18 months in jail. While Terra's Do Kwon is already serving time in a Montenegran prison for using falsified travel documents, and the country’s court has already approved his extradition, reportedly to the U.S. rather than his native South Korea.

However, the Terraform Labs co-founder might not get to the U.S. until after CZ's sentencing. A Montenegro court has extended the detention of Do Kwon at the request of the U.S. and South Korean authorities, according to Bloomberg. He will now stay in the country for another two months until February 15, explained court spokeswoman Marija Rakovic.

It is unclear why the U.S. and South Korea have requested such a delay. Do Kwon will reportedly be extradited to the U.S., where he will face eight criminal charges, including market manipulation, fraud and conspiracy. The Montenegro appellate court is currently considering his appeal against the extradition ruling.

After his less-than-successful appearance in the dock, Sam Bankman-Fried was reported to be an awful client by his lawyer. Stanford Law Professor David Mills and friend of SBF’s parents (at least before his latest comments), who led the defence in his case, said that Sam Bankman-Fried went off-script when he took the stand and repeatedly deviated from his lawyers’ strategy

“He may be at the very top of the list as the worst person I’ve ever seen do a cross-examination.”

While Mills believes that the verdict was inevitable, he doesn’t think that the trial was fair as SBF “didn’t form the intent to do anything wrong.” 

“You got five people who say one thing, one person says another thing. Well, you’ve got no shot—zero… I thought it was almost impossible to win a case when three or four founders are all saying you did it,” – referring to the testimonies of FTX co-founder Gary Wang, Alameda Chief Executive Officer Caroline Ellison and FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh.

CZ, meanwhile, has kept relatively quiet since the court ruled out his departure to the UAE and has even decided to “stay off Twitter for a while.”