Police officers escort Korean crypto mogul Do Kwon, left, to a holding facility for foreigners pending his extradition, in Podgorica, Montenegro, March 23. EPA-Yonhap

Montenegrin lawyers of disgraced Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon are struggling to have him extradited to his home country, not the United States, according to local news reports.

Kwon's legal representatives in Montenegro appealed against the Podgorica High Court's recent ruling that found the conditions for his extradition to both Korea and the U.S. were met, local daily Vijesti reported on Tuesday.

In their appeal, the lawyers said that the high court's April 8 decision is "unfounded and illegal" and the relevant legal provisions were interpreted in a bizarre manner by the high court and the Supreme Court in an attempt to satisfy the wishes of the justice minister, the report said.

The country's justice minister is expected to decide where to hand Kwon over to after courts make relevant rulings on the case.

Kwon, co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, is wanted both by Korea and the United States, where he faces investigation and indictment on charges connected to the crash of the firm's TerraUSD and Luna coins in May 2022. He was arrested in the European country in March last year after being caught traveling on a fake passport.

Early this month, Montenegro's Supreme Court scrapped Kwon's extradition to Korea and sent the case back to a lower court. (Yonhap)