US Expert Found Guilty of North Korea's 'Sanctions Evasion Cryptocurrency Special Lecture'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] A U.S. expert indicted for delivering cryptocurrency technology capable of evading U.S. sanctions to North Korea has pleaded guilty, Bloomberg reported on the 27th (local time).

According to the report, Virgil Griffith, a cryptocurrency expert who worked at the Ethereum Foundation, admitted to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a U.S. sanctions law against North Korea, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

This law prohibits the export of goods, services, or technology to terrorist-supporting countries such as North Korea and prescribes a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for violators.

The sentencing date for Griffith, who pleaded guilty, is set for January 18 next year. Griffith's attorney stated in a press release, "Griffith sincerely regrets his actions," and asked to consider "his significant contributions to society."

Despite being denied permission to visit North Korea by the U.S. State Department, Griffith traveled via China to visit North Korea around April 2019 to give a presentation at an event called the "Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference."

At this event, he reportedly lectured North Korean officials on how to use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to evade sanctions. After the event, he planned to establish a system enabling cryptocurrency exchanges between North and South Korea.

In November of the same year, he was arrested in Los Angeles on charges of providing blockchain technology information to the dictatorial regime.

Griffith, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the California Institute of Technology, worked at the Ethereum Foundation. In 2007, he gained recognition for developing a program that identified the identities of anonymous users who edited entries on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

In 2008, Griffith described North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un as a "cult hacker" and referred to him as a mysterious internet figure in The New York Times.