South Korean tycoon, wanted on multimillion-dollar fraud charges, loses 10-year Canadian extradition fight
- Former Vancouver developer Jung Myung-soo was led away in handcuffs, but his lawyer says he intends to appeal
- The case played out in the same Vancouver courts where Meng Wanzhou fought against extradition to the US, with some of the same lawyers involved
A South Korean tycoon who was behind one of Metro Vancouver’s biggest property developments has lost a long court battle against extradition to his native country, where he faces multimillion-dollar fraud charges.
Jung Myung-soo was led away in handcuffs on Thursday after a judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered him committed for extradition. Canada’s justice minister will make the final decision whether to surrender him to Korean prosecutors.
However, Jung’s lawyer Tony Paisana said his client would appeal, and a hearing was scheduled for later in the day for Jung to reapply for bail.
Jung’s case has been quietly playing out for years in the same Vancouver courtrooms where the extradition battle of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou had been receiving worldwide attention.
The cases even involved some of the same lawyers, including Paisana, who helped represent Meng, and Canadian Department of Justice lawyer Diba Majzub, who helped represent the interests of the US in Meng’s case and South Korea in Jung’s.
Meng’s case ended last month when she reached an agreement with US authorities that effectively halted her prosecution and aborted the extradition case after almost three years.
