Virgil Griffith pleads for conspiracy allegations for his North Korea trip

Virgil Griffith pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges during his trip to North Korea to attend a blockchain conference a few years ago, as we reported in the latest crypto news today.

Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith pleaded guilty to a settlement with federal prosecutors and his trial begins today in New York.

Griffth was arrested in 2019 after visiting the North Korean capital Pyongyang and speaking at a blockchain conference there. Now he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to violate the Emergency Economic Powers Act and he has reached a settlement agreement that sentenced him to about six years in prison.

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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York argued that Virgil Griffith violated the international emergency law, which bans the export of goods, services, or technology to North Koreans, and in a statement against the law, alleged U.S. attorney Geoffrey S. Berman stated that Griffith provided information technology to North Korea because he knew information would help them launder money and circumvent sanctions, as Berman explains:

“Griffith has jeopardized the sanctions both Congress and the president have put in place to put maximum pressure on the dangerous regime of North Korea.”

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Virgil Griffith entered the country in 2019 without a US permit, despite being warned against a trip to North Korea as a criminal complaint. Griffith’s lawyers, in turn, argued that the information provided did not qualify as a service and could be accessed by anyone on the Internet, which is why he claimed the speech was protected by the first amendment. Since his arrest, the crypto community has been divided on the issue, with some arguing that the actions he took were wrong. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was among those who spoke out in favor of Griffith in 2019 when he tweeted:

“I refused to take the easy route of throwing Virgil under the bus because I firmly believed it was wrong.”

Meanwhile, a petition to release Virgil Griffith from prison received only 516 signatures in two years. As previously reported, after he was denied bail, Griffht received a loan of 1 million third parties – his mother – at the end of December 2019. He was released on bail with no access to his accounts and is being placed under house arrest with his parents in Alabama.