Former Ethereum Foundation researcher Virgil Griffith has filed a motion to dismiss charges of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on the grounds that prosecutors failed to establish his crime properly. Cointelegraph.
The FBI and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York arrested Griffith in November 2019. In April of that year he attended a blockchain conference in Pyongyang, where he allegedly provided services to North Korean officials, outlining how to use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions and to facilitate cross-border transfers.
Griffith contends that his conference presentation was “a very general talk based on publicly available information”.
In the motion he also noted that he attended the event for free, and therefore did not provide services to North Korea.
Griffith argues that his conference presentation falls under the information-sharing exemption of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act with respect to information sharing.
Earlier, Griffith refused to plead guilty to the charges. In January, he was released on $1 million bail.
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