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Virgil Griffith, an American crypto promoter and a former hacker has been charged for advising North Korea on using digital assets to avoid international controls, said a New York court on Monday.
American Crypto Promoter Pleads Guilty for Advising North Korea
According to the Southern District Court of New York, Virgil Griffith who was based out of Singapore had launched few projects in 2018 that provided services to North Korea by developing and financing cryptocurrency structures, which also included cryptocurrency mining.
The court also revealed that Griffith worked with others to provide cryptocurrency services and helped North Korea to effectively evade sanctions. He now faces a 20-year long prison sentence.
He had allegedly attended a cryptocurrency conference in April 2019 in the city of Pyongyang where he elucidated the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. And how to effectively "evade sanctions" violating the bans on “exporting any goods, services, or technology” to North Korea, which were put in place by the US government in response to the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Virgil Griffith's Arrest Ensuing His Sentence
In November 2019, Virgil Griffith was intercepted and arrested by the security personnel at the Los Angeles International Airport.
Following the conference in North Korea, it is alleged that Griffith “began formulating plans to facilitate the exchange of cryptocurrency between the DPRK and South Korea, despite knowing that assisting with such an exchange would violate sanctions,”. He had also planned to renounce his nationality and was looking to purchase the citizenship of another country.
Griffith has a doctorate in theoretical neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology and was given the title "the cult hacker" by the New York Times Profile 11 years ago.