US Citizen Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Help North Korea Evade Sanctions via Cryptocurrency

Virgil Griffith, a U.S. citizen residing in Singapore and cryptocurrency expert, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by giving North Korea technical advice on how to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to skirt U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Griffith began formulating his plans in 2018, traveling to Pyongyang in 2019 to attend the Pyongyang Blockain and Cryptocurrency Conference. The State Department denied Griffith the right to travel to North Korea, but he went anyway, giving presentations to the North Korean audience, knowing full well that this violated sanctions, the Department of Justice said.

At the conference, Griffith gave instructions on how technologies such as "smart contracts" could be used to benefit North Korea, including in nuclear weapons negotiations with the U.S., the New York Southern District's press release said. Following the conference's conclusion, Griffith sought to facilitate the exchange of cryptocurrency between North Korea and South Korea, also attempting to recruit other U.S. citizens to travel to North Korea and provide similar services, the release said. Griffith will be sentenced by Judge P. Kevin Castel on Jan. 18, 2022.

"As he admitted in court today, Virgil Griffith agreed to help one of our nation’s most dangerous foreign adversaries, North Korea," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss said. "Griffith worked with others to provide cryptocurrency services to North Korea and assist North Korea in evading sanctions, and traveled to North Korea to do so. In the process, Griffith jeopardized the national security of the United States by undermining the sanctions that both Congress and the President have enacted to place maximum pressure on the threat posed by North Korea’s treacherous regime."