Virgil Griffith Arrested by U.S. Authorities For Teaching Cryptocurrency And Blockchain

Virgil Griffith Arrested by U.S. Authorities For Teaching Cryptocurrency And Blockchain

According to a criminal complaint Virgil Griffith 36, resident of Singapore and U.S. citizen, was arrested where he was charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ( IEEPA ) by traveling to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK” or “North Korea”) in order deliver a presentation and technical advice on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to evade sanctions. He could face up to 20 years in prison.
(According to a press release from the Department of Justice on November 29, 2019, )

Virgil Griffith

Virgil Griffith was once dubbed an “internet man of mystery” by The New York Times. He has a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and works for Eretheum, which produces a digital currency token that’s a rival to Bitcoin.
The Justice Department alleged in the complaint that, while giving a presentation titled "Blockchain and Peace" in Pyongyang, Griffith described how North Korea could "launder money and evade sanctions" and "use these technologies to achieve independence from the global banking system."
“Mr. Griffith allegedly traveled to North Korea without permission from the federal government, and with knowing what he was doing was against the law. 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 put the world at risk. It’s even more egregious that a U.S. citizen allegedly chose to aid our adversary.”
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr.

Griffith—an American citizen who has been living in Singapore—hoped the cryptocurrency made by his own company, unnamed in the complaint, would be North Korea’s choice, the feds charged. The complaint also said that Griffith had attended the cryptocurrency conference even after the government denied him permission to do so.
The North Korean regime allegedly approved his talk. Governments across the world, including the United States, have largely shut the country out over human rights abuses and efforts to build nuclear weapons. US Federal prosecutor Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement that Griffith allegedly "provided highly technical information to North Korea, knowing that this information could be used to help North Korea launder money and evade sanctions. both Congress and the president have enacted to place maximum pressure on North Korea's dangerous regime,"
The US and the United Nations have ramped up sanctions on North Korea in recent years as a bid to settle its expanding nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
“I need to send 1 unit of (Cryptocurrency-1, which belonged to Griffith’s company) between North and South Korea,” he wrote.

Isn’t that avoiding sanctions?” his associate asked.

“It is,” Griffith wrote, according to the complaint.

Griffith's arrest seemed to stir outrage in his tech circles, as the hacker magazine 2600 tweeted that the arrest was "an attack on all of us."
In this case, Griffith is specifically accused of traveling to North Korea (DPRK) in April 2019 to attend and present at the “Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference” (the “DPRK Cryptocurrency Conference”), even though the U.S. Department of State had denied Griffith permission to travel to the DPRK. Griffith presented at the DPRK Cryptocurrency Conference, knowing that doing so violated sanctions against the DPRK and at no time did Griffith obtain permission from OFAC to provide goods, services, or technology to the DPRK.
He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Thanksgiving Day and arraigned Friday. He faces 20 years in prison if convicted.