Court Sentences Former Ethereum Developer to Five Years in Jail and Fined $100,000 for Conspiring With North Korea to Evade Sanctions by Using Cryptocurrencies.

A U.S. court has sentenced former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith to five years and three months in prison and pay a $100,000 fine for conspiring with North Korea to help use cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions imposed on the country.

"There is no question North Korea poses a national security threat to our nation, and the regime has shown time and again it will stop at nothing to ignore our laws for its own benefit," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

CyberSecurity

The sentencing comes more than six months after Griffith pleaded guilty to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by offering technical advice to the hermit kingdom with regards to the use of digital currency to bypass economic restrictions. Griffith was arrested in November 2019.

North Korea is known to rely on cryptocurrency heists to get around international sanctions and use it to help fund programs to build weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, the nation-state-backed Lazarus Group siphoned an estimated $400 million worth of digital assets from crypto platforms in 2021 alone.

"The double scenario of espionage and money theft is unique to North Korea, which operates intelligence units that steal both information and money for their country," Israeli cybersecurity company ClearSky noted in August 2020.

Griffith is said to have conceived plans back in 2018 to develop and fund cryptocurrency infrastructure in North Korea, such as crypto mining, and subsequently provided instructions on how the regime could use blockchain technologies like smart contracts to launder funds.

CyberSecurity

The 39-year-old defendant, a U.S. citizen and a resident of Singapore, also formulated proposals to facilitate the exchange of digital currency between North and South Korea, and attempted to recruit other U.S. citizens to offer similar services to individuals in the nation.

These actions were carried out despite having been refused permission from the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Justice Department said in the ruling.

"Mr. Griffith admitted in court he took actions to evade sanctions, which are in place to prevent the DPRK from building a nuclear weapon," Williams added. "Justice has been served with the sentence handed down today."

#THN

#osutayusuf

Comments

UGANDA ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO ELIMINATE NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION CARDS (IDs) FOR 2021 GENERAL ELECTIONS.

The elimination of using National IDs (Ndagamuntu) for the 2021 elections should not have come as a surprise. One would be very NAIVE to think that Bobi Wine has not prepared for this in his Business Plan under the RISK section. It is public knowledge that our EC is not independent. It is also public knowledge that Military Dictator Yoweri Museveni will never lose an election. What stunned us this morning is when we noticed that on social media, people were mocking Bobi with his "get your Ndagamuntu". We are on record for saying to all Our readers that the National ID is like Apartheid in South Africa. Students of History would know how those IDs were being used to arrest people, deny them jobs, deny them basic services. Consequently, Bobi was not wrong and will never be wrong on the Ndagamuntu. Except the ones attacking him and mocking him forget that in Uganda, now, no National ID (Ndagamuntu), no service. If you have not been denied registering your child i...

Here is Why Our Utterances For Praying Jesus And God To Come Liberate Ugandans, May Be Misplaced. This Phrase is like inform of a Letter To Some Categorized Section Of Ugandans.

https://m.facebook.com/yusufosuta/photos/a.1896701010557789/2070383359856219/?type=3 OPEN LETTER TO NRM SUPPORTERS - NATIONAL ROBBERS MOVEMENT. .................................................................................. Last week of March, a friend told me to pray for Uganda. I told him that he was an Idiot and we have prayed for too long and we are still hungry and sick and Jesus is not coming soon to liberate us. He then ignored the STUPID and sent me a picture we all now know. It got me totally messed up. This guy was telling me to pray then sends a picture of men bowing down in blood. He might have meant guns but I blocked him because his utterances of praying for Uganda were misplaced. I unblocked him 3 weeks later and asked him about praying and assassinations. His reply "eithrr prayers or guns or both". I hate violence with a passion. So he is now blocked in like FOREVER. Do you feel safe? Do not feel safe. Uganda regim...

CAN I CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT THE INHERITANCE I RECEIVED AND ASK FOR SOMETHING ELSE ?.

#iip_updates . #Information_is_Power . Read more here https://informationispowah.blogspot.com/2023/07/can-i-change-my-mind-about-inheritance.html in the link. #we_inform_the_uninformed . Okello lost his wife 20 years ago and decided to only focus on their Mateo, Yona and Yosefu. 20 years later, Okello had 7 acres of land, a successful poultry business, and sinotrucks for hire. Early this year, Okello got a call telling him that one of his trucks knocked a boda boda. Okello decided to rush to see if he could sort it out before police became involved. Unfortunately, he never made it, as he was entering the main road, another trailer rammed into him and killed him instantly. After Okello had been laid to rest, his sons sat down and divided the property amongst themselves. However, of late, Yosefu the last born has started complaining that he was cheated, and he wants to be given something else because most of the chicken in the chicken business died of a fever. Can ...

Osuta Yusuf

Search This Blog