Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has been sentenced to more than five years in US federal prison for helping North Korea evade sanctions.
Griffith was arrested in 2019 and pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The 39-year-old presented at a blockchain conference in Pyongyang after the US government denied his request to travel there.
According to reports, the crypto researcher was a US citizen living in Singapore, who previously worked for the Ethereum Foundation.
Prosecutors accused him of advising more than 100 people, including some linked to the North Korean government, on how to use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions and circumvent the global banking system.
Heavy punishment sought for Griffith
The sentence of five years to three months, imposed by US District Judge Kevin Castell, was the minimum amount of prison term sought by prosecutors. Griffith had asked for two years to see their cooperation.
The judge also imposed a fine of $100,000 which was significantly less than the million dollars sought by prosecutors who wrote:
“Griffith is a US citizen who chose to evade the sanctions of his own country by providing services to a hostile foreign power,”
In his defense, attorney Brian Klein said the 63-month sentence was disappointing but the judge “acknowledged Virgil’s commitment to leading his life productively and that he is a genius who has so much to contribute.” “
Griffith, who has a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology, previously collaborated with the FBI and “helped educate law enforcement” about the dark web, Klein said. He has also been described as a “well-known hacker” by some US media outlets reporting on the conviction.
In December 2019, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his support by signing a petition calling for Griffith to be freed at the time.
Tough sanctions on North Korea
North Korea has been subjected to stringent sanctions by the United States and the United Nations Security Council. In 2018, the US government amended those restrictions to prohibit the rogue nation from “exporting technology” to its citizens.
The US has also become concerned about the alleged role of cryptocurrencies in Russia’s efforts to evade sanctions. However, those concerns have been widely refuted by industry experts who have shown that volatile crypto assets cannot be used by a country with such a large forex market.