Terraforms Labs CEO Do Kwon spent the last day of 2024 evading extradition to the US, Reuters reports. Kwon is accused in the US of “conspiring to perpetrate a multibillion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities.” The Terraforms co-founder has been detained in Montenegro since March 2023, when he tried to board a flight with a forged passport — six months after Interpol issued a “red notice” warrant for his arrest.
South Korea-based Terraforms Labs wiped $40 billion off the crypto market when its TerraUSD and Luna stablecoins turned out to be not so stable and plummeted in May 2022. Kwon had fled South Korea just a month earlier.
The US announced its charges in February 2023, with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler saying, “We allege that TerraForm and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosures required for crypto asset securities, particularly for Luna and TerraUSD. We also allege that they committed fraud by repeatedly making false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating harm to investors.” South Korea has also issued similar charges.
Montenegro does not have an extradition treaty with the US or South Korea. The request has languished in court over the past year and a half, with Montenegro’s Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic ordering Kwon’s extradition last week. TerraForm Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last January.
Q4 showed a slight increase in deliveries, to 495,000 this year and 484,000 in 2023. However, according to reporting from CNBC, analysts had predicted a much stronger final quarter. These analysts expected fourth-quarter deliveries to be around 506,000. Tesla doesn’t publish actual sales numbers in the US, so these delivery metrics are the closest we get.
Numbers have also decreased in Europe, with 2024 falling 14 percent compared to last year. This is according to registration data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.