(JustPatriots.com)- On Monday, two Europeans were charged with conspiring with an American cryptocurrency expert, who has already been convicted, to teach North Koreans how to use blockchain technology to get around U.S. sanctions on its nuclear weapons program.
He went to North Korea even though the US Department of State denied his request.
In September, Virgil Griffith, 39, said he went to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, to go to a blockchain conference in April 2019.
It says that while he was in Pyongyang, Griffith told the DPRK how to use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to hide money and avoid sanctions.
He paid €100 for a visa, which he put on a separate piece of paper from his US passport. This way, he didn’t have to show anyone that he had been to North Korea.
Prosecutors say that DPRK officials had approved his talks, and they talked about how blockchain technology could be used to help the DPRK.
He also expressed his desire to return to North Korea and seek alternate citizenship.
In court, Griffith said he agreed to help one of our country’s most dangerous foreign adversaries, North Korea.
Prosecutors said that Griffith helped North Korea evade sanctions and provided cryptocurrency services during his time in North Korea. In the process, Griffith put the United States’ national security at risk by undermining the sanctions that Congress and the president had put in place to put the most pressure on North Korea’s dangerous regime.
People in North Korea are increasingly using cryptocurrency to get around international sanctions. They can use the money to fund programs that build weapons of mass destruction, or they can use it to pay for other programs.
Officials in South Korea and Japan say that the NOKO regime recently fired a missile off its east coast into the sea.
As a result of North Korea’s nuclear tests last year, sanctions were put in place, making it hard for the country to get gas and oil from China legally. This is because of the sanctions. As for cybercrime, though, the country still has lots of power and is getting better.
The government has used cyberattacks to steal millions of dollars from cryptocurrency exchanges. In 2017, the government paid for ransomware attacks on the NHS, which caused much damage.
State-sponsored groups may be rare globally, but it’s possible this one could be the only one with a money-motivated goal.
When FireEye started working in February 2014, the company says, the United Nations probably played a role. The company says it was likely because of the financial sanctions that the United Nations put in place in March 2013. Those sanctions stopped North Korea from making big cash transfers and cut off its access to international banking systems.
A lot of money has been earned by making drugs and smuggling things. He says that hacking is a form of the same thing.
There has been an Office 39 in the government since at least the 1970s, and since then, it has been a big help to the government by making money on the black market.
Almost one billion dollars are thought to come from counterfeiting money and even smuggling gold through the country.
