A US citizen living in Singapore was found guilty of advising North Korea on cryptocurrencies. Virgil Griffith, a scientist at the Ethereum Foundation, admitted to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and was sentenced to 63 months to 78 months in prison starting January 18.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that Griffith was developing plans to provide services to individuals in North Korea by developing and financing its cryptocurrency infrastructure. The ministry writes that Griffith knew this could help the country avoid US sanctions.
State Department banned Griffith from going to North Korea
Griffith traveled to North Korea to attend a crypto and blockchain conference in 2019, despite the US State Department denying him travel authorization for violating Treasury bans on “exporting goods, services or technology.”
While there, the Justice Department was quoted by Griffith as saying “how North Korea can use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to launder money and evade sanctions, and how blockchain technologies like “smart contracts” can be used by North Korea, including nuclear weapons talks between the United States and North Korea. It claims to have provided information on how it can be used to benefit the ministry, which also disclosed Griffith’s plans to renounce his US citizenship in order to “buy” citizenship in another country.
Griffith was arrested in 2019:
Griffith is also allegedly trying to recruit other US citizens who will travel to North Korea and provide similar crypto services. The individual was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in November 2019.
Griffith, who holds a doctorate in theoretical neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology, pleaded guilty before trial, and prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence ranging from 63 months to 78 months as part of the settlement, helping him avoid his maximum 20-year sentence.
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