Crypto expert pleads guilty to helping North Korea on blockchain technology

Virgil Griffiths, a cryptocurrency specialist, pled guilty to assisting North Korean officials in evading sanctions through the use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in 2019. Griffiths will be sentenced on January 18, 2022, and faces up to 20 years in jail.

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On Monday, Virgil Griffith filed his plea in federal court in Manhattan, just as jury selection for his trial was to begin. After attending a conference in Pyongyang earlier in the year, the former senior researcher for the Ethereum Foundation was detained in November 2019. Mr.Griffith was charged by a federal grand jury convened by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on one count of intentionally conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which forbids US citizens from exporting goods, services, or technology to North Korea.

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Griffith allegedly began preparing his aid to the North Korean government in 2018 by “creating and financing cryptocurrency infrastructure there, as well as to mine cryptocurrency, he was aware that the technologies he was developing would be used to avoid US sanctions and support government operations like as the North Korean nuclear weapons programs and “other illegal activities.” according to a statement from the Justice Department.

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According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Griffith, who lives in Singapore, obtained a visa to travel to North Korea via the country’s diplomatic post in Manhattan. He entered North Korea through China in April 2019 despite not having received US clearance. According to the lawsuit, authorities from the Treasury Department and the State Department had cautioned him against traveling to the country.

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According to the authorities, Mr. Griffith informed a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent before his detention that the North Korean leadership had authorized the themes of his presentation in advance of the conference, he reportedly informed the investigator that bitcoin might make North Korea practically independent from the global banking system.

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Prior to his imprisonment, Griffith was a member of the Ethereum Foundation’s Special Projects Committee. Onion.city, a Tor-to-Web (Tor2Web) service, was also run by him.