American Virgil Griffith was arrested by the FBI at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday on suspicion of going to a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea and sharing his expertise on cryptocurrencies.
This was announced by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“Despite receiving warnings not to go, Griffith allegedly traveled to one of the United States’ foremost adversaries, North Korea, where he taught his audience how to use blockchain technology to evade sanctions, John Demers, an assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
Has worked for the Ethereum Foundation
The Attorney’s Office refers to Griffith being in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and, according to the statement, would appear in a court in Los Angeles on Friday.
According to Griffith’s Linkedin page, he has worked for the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit company based in Switzerland that promotes and manages the cryptocurrency ethereum, since October 2016, Coindesk writes.
