An American cryptocurrency expert was sentenced on April 12 to 63 months in federal prison for teaching individuals in North Korea how to use blockchain technology to evade U.S. sanctions.
Virgil Griffith, 39, a U.S. citizen living in Singapore, was arrested in November 2019 after he delivered a presentation at a cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang, even after U.S. authorities had denied his travel request.
He pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to violate international sanctions. Griffith also was fined $100,000.
Griffith and his co-conspirators provided instructions to individuals in North Korea on how to use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to launder money, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) statement.
The DOJ claimed that Griffith began formulating plans in 2018 to provide services to individuals in North Korea by developing and funding cryptocurrency infrastructure there.
“Griffith knew that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] could use these services to evade and avoid U.S. sanctions, and to fund its nuclear weapons program and other illicit activities,” it stated.
Griffith allegedly helped to facilitate the exchange of cryptocurrency between North Korea and South Korea, despite knowing that assisting such an exchange would be violating the international sanctions against North Korea, according to the DOJ.
He also attempted to recruit other U.S. citizens to travel to North Korea and provide similar services, as well as broker introductions for North Korea to other cryptocurrency and blockchain service providers.
Defense attorney Brian Klein described Griffith as a “brilliant Caltech-trained scientist who developed a curiosity bordering on obsession” with North Korea.
“We cannot allow anyone to evade sanctions, because the consequences of North Korea obtaining funding, technology, and information to further its desire to build nuclear weapons puts the world at risk,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said at the time of his arrest.
“It’s even more egregious that a U.S. citizen allegedly chose to aid our adversary.”
The United States and the U.N. Security Council have imposed increasingly tight sanctions on North Korea in recent years to try to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The U.S. government amended sanctions against North Korea in 2018 to prohibit “a U.S. person, wherever located” from exporting technology to North Korea.
Friends Read Free