Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith was sentenced to 63-78 months in prison and a $100,000 fine for traveling to North Korea and helping his people use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions. Griffith was arrested in November 2019 after speaking at a cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang that same year and has been in custody ever since.
Although the maximum penalty for this offense was 20 years, the developer’s plea deal reduced the sentence to 5 to 6.5 years. As Griffith has been detained for more than 14 months, 14 months on bail, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel will count his 10 months in prison as serving time.
Interestingly, Griffith’s defense asked the judge to count 10 months as 20 because of the “inhumane” conditions at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) where he was detained. His lawyer also cited COVID-19 restrictions, limited access to warm clothing, and lack of family visits, while essentially asking for a reduced sentence. He was also asked to move Griffith to Allenwood Low, a low-security federal prison. Medical reasons were also cited, and Griffith said he falsely believes he thinks better when traveling to North Korea, despite friends and family telling him not to.
But the judge was unimpressed by any of these arguments and even said, “No sanctions!” at Griffith’s Pyongyang cryptocurrency conference, wearing North Korean garb and smiling. He quoted a photo of him standing in front of a whiteboard that said The judge concluded that “this man is willing to play for both sides as long as he is in the limelight”.
Griffith will currently spend at least 53 more months in jail and pay a $100,000 fine. Both the judge and the prosecution say the relatively strict ruling will deter US citizens from violating sanctions in the future, especially with the ongoing Ukraine-Russia situation…
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