A Briton is one of two Europeans accused of plotting with a US cryptocurrency developer to help North Korea evade US sanctions.
Britain’s Christopher Ems and Spain’s Alejandro Cao de Benos are said to have worked with Virgil Griffith to provide illegal cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology services to North Korea, according to the New York South District Attorney’s Office.
Ems is currently being held in Saudi Arabia while fighting a US extradition request. Surrey, a 30-year-old cryptocurrency expert, Surrey, has been charged with violating the International Extraordinary Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), although he is not a “US person” and therefore not subject to law.
This came after Griffith, 39, was recently sentenced to five years in prison for helping the North Korean regime evade US sanctions imposed on its nuclear weapons program.
The indictment alleges that the couple conspired with Griffith from around 2018 until around November 2019.
Image: Virgil Griffith pleaded guilty last year to a trip to North Korea. Photo: @ VirgilGr / Twitter
Prosecutors said that according to court documents, Ems and De Benos jointly planned and organized the blockchain and cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang (the North Korean cryptocurrency conference) for the benefit of the country.
U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said Ems and De Benos were in conspiracy with Griffiths “to train and advise members of the North Korean government on cutting-edge cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, all in order to avoid US sanctions designed to stop hostile nuclear weapons.” ambitions of North Korea. “
He added that Ems had said he had advised North Korean officials that “cryptocurrency technology” makes it possible to transfer money to any country in the world, regardless of the sanctions or penalties imposed on any country. “
Last September, Griffith pleaded guilty to traveling to North Korea (DPRK) to attend a blockchain conference in the capital, Pyongyang, in April 2019, although he was denied permission to go there by the US State Department.
At a conference in the capital, he “provided instructions on how the DPRK can use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to launder money and avoid sanctions,” according to the justice ministry.
Griffiths, who lives in Singapore, avoids creating physical evidence that he was in North Korea by paying 100 euros for a visa, which he attached to paper separate from his US passport.
North Korea is increasingly using cryptocurrency to circumvent international sanctions and can use it to help fund weapons of mass destruction programs.
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