CRYPTO GURU gets jail TIME for sanctions Case
CRYPTO GURU gets jail TIME for sanctions Case.North Korea
A Bitcoin logo is displayed on an ATM in Hong Kong, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. A cryptocurrency expert was sentenced Tuesday, April 12, 2022, to more than five years in federal prison for helping North Korea evade U.S. sanctions. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
NEW YORK -- A cryptocurrency GURU was Jailed Tuesday to more than five years in U.S. federal prison for helping North Korea evade U.S. sanctions.
Virgil Griffith, 39, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, admitting he presented at a cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang in 2019 even after the U.S. government denied his request to travel there.
A well-known hacker, Griffith also developed "cryptocurrency infrastructure and equipment inside North Korea," prosecutors wrote in court papers. At the 2019 conference, he advised more than 100 people -- including several who appeared to work for the North Korean government -- on how to use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions and achieve independence from the global banking system.