Recently, Mr. Virgil Griffiths, who was working for the Ethereum Foundation, was arrested by the US authorities, accused of going to a conference in North Korea and sharing his experience in the use of cryptocurrencies.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced Friday that “Griffiths” was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Thanksgiving Day.

In this regard, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said:

Despite receiving warnings not to go, Griffiths traveled to one of the United States’ main adversaries, North Korea, where he taught his fans how to use blockchain technology to evade sanctions.

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The complaint refers specifically to international law violations of emergency economic powers.

The arrest statement said Griffiths should appear in court in Los Angeles.

In April, the Republic of North Korea held the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference.

According to a complaint against Griffiths, Griffiths sought approval to attend the conference, which was refused.

He then traveled to the conference without permission via China.

The complaint against Griffiths was filed by an FBI special agent named Brandon M. Kavanaugh.” He notes that on May 22, 2019, the two participated in what Kavanaugh calls a “consensus interview.”

The complaint also asserts that:

Griffiths discussed with attendees how North Korea could use blockchain and crypto to launder money and evade sanctions, and how North Korea could use these technologies to achieve independence from the global banking system.

The certificate does not mention any specific cryptocurrency, only confirmation that Griffiths had experience with what is referred to as ‘cryptocurrency-1’.

Where the complaint also stated that after the North Korea cryptocurrency conference.

Griffiths began formulating plans to facilitate the exchange of Cryptocurrency-1 between North and South Korea.

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As part of the interview, Griffith showed the agent photos and documents from the rally and said he’d like to return to the conference when it happens again in 2020.

According to Griffith’s LinkedIn page, he has worked for the Ethereum Foundation since October 2016.

As previously mentioned, he held the position of Head of Special Projects.

After this news was published, the Ethereum Foundation sent a statement to Source It explains:

The Ethereum Foundation was not represented in any capacity in the events identified in the DOJ file, and the Foundation did not approve or endorse any such travel, which was a personal matter.

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Among other things, the complaint said Griffiths was interested in seeking citizenship in another jurisdiction.

His LinkedIn page also states that he resides primarily in Singapore.

Where he was recently working to verify and certify that Ethereum is compatible with Islamic law.

Kavanaugh wrote in the complaint’s statement:

Because this statement is made for the limited purpose of showing probable cause, it does not include all of the facts you came to know during your investigation.

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