Montenegro's PM Invested in Terra Days After It Was Founded

The prime minister of Montenegro has been rocked by a rather embarrassing revelation: he was one of the earliest investors in Do Kwon's doomed Terraform Labs.

A report by the local media outlet Vijesti suggests Milojko Spajić threw $75,000 into the project back in April 2018—and ended up receiving 750,000 LUNA as a result.

Fast forward to now, and in the wake of a spectacular collapse that wiped out $40 billion in investor assets, Terraform Labs has reached a $4.5 billion settlement with the SEC after a civil fraud trial.

On the face of it, this is an unfortunate investment loss for Spajić, who had served as a VC partner before launching his political career.

But delving deeper, and there are searing questions about why Kwon, who went on the run after Terra's demise, chose to hide himself in Montenegro.

Spajić, who at 36 is one of the world's youngest leaders, was appointed prime minister back in October 2023, about seven months after Kwon was arrested for trying to flee Montenegro using falsified travel documents.

But in June last year, departing prime minister Dritan Abazovic had urged the special state prosecutor to investigate allegations of business ties between Spajić and Kwon. At the time, he told media outlets:

"It’s not good for Montenegro if Spajić had contacts with Do Kwon, because the man is wanted by the US and South Korean authorities … We cannot become a breeding ground for global fraudsters, even if they use blockchain or anything else."

Spajić has pushed back against claims of a conspiracy — and at the time, described Kwon as a "fraudster who defrauded millions of people, including my friends." He went on to add:

"We had the special satisfaction of reporting him to authorities."

Abazovic questioned the accuracy of this statement, arguing that Spajić hadn't actually informed the Montenegrin interior ministry that Kwon was in the country.

Spajić has remained tight-lipped about whether he still held his LUNA investment at the time of Terra's collapse — but if he had, he would have been nursing losses to the tune of $90 million.

And in the days to come, as Montenegro digests the latest twist in this long-running scandal, the prime minister may face calls to disclose transactions from his crypto wallets.