DOJ Charges 2 Europeans With Conspiring to Evade North Korean Sanctions

Alejandro Cao De Benos and Christopher Emms, citizens of Spain and the U.K., respectively, were charged in the Southern District of New York with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on North Korea to provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to the North Korean state, DOJ announced April 25. The two are charged with aiding Virgil Griffith, who was sentenced April 12 for conspiring to violate sanctions on North Korea (see 2204130031).

Starting in 2018, Cao De Benos and Emms allegedly partnered to organize the Pyongyan Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference to aid the North Korean regime. The pair recruited Griffith, a U.S. citizen and cryptocurrency expert, to give a talk at the conference, facilitating his travel to North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions. Emms and Griffith purportedly gave instructions on how to use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to evade sanctions, DOJ said. Emms and Griffith explained cryptocurrency transactions designed to evade U.S. sanctions and laid out plans to create "smart contracts" to serve the North Korean state, DOJ said.

Griffith was arrested in November 2019. DOJ didn't say whether Cao De Benos and Emms are in custody. The pair is charged with one count of conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act -- a charge that carries a 20-year maximum penalty.

“The United States will not allow the North Korean regime to use cryptocurrency to evade global sanctions designed to thwart its goals of nuclear proliferation and regional destabilization,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said. “This indictment, along with the successful prosecution of co-conspirator, Virgil Griffith, makes clear that the department will hold anyone, wherever located, accountable for conspiring with North Korea to violate U.S. sanctions.”