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Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith is trying to dismiss the sanctions violation allegations against him. Griffith recently filed a motion arguing that the government’s allegation is “fatally flawed” and deserves dismissal.
Griffith was arrested in November 2019 by the FBI after giving a presentation at a blockchain conference in North Korea earlier this year. The US government later accused him of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Prosecutors said they taught North Korean officials how to use blockchain and digital currencies to evade US sanctions.
In a dismissal motion filed by his attorney Brian Klein in the Southern District of New York, Griffith accused prosecutors of “advancing through prosecution unverified prosecution theories that are fatally flawed.”
The government would have failed to expose facts that amount to a criminal offense. Instead, he provided a brief and vague accusation that fails to show how Griffith committed a crime, Klein said.
“Knowing full well that Mr. Griffith at most attended a conference on his own and gave a very general speech based on publicly available information – as he does almost monthly at conferences around the world – the government still chose to accuse him of providing “services” to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK”). “
According to Klein, Griffith would not have received any payment for his alleged presentation at the North Korean blockchain event. As such, its conduct in North Korea does not amount to a service offered. The lawyer backed up his argument by citing a 2003 ruling in which New York judge Jed Rakoff defined a service as “performing something useful for a fee.”
Klein said Griffith’s alleged speech in North Korea is exempt from the IEEE and protected by the First Amendment. The former Ethereum Foundation researcher also limited his alleged observations to information already available in the public domain.
“Because of all these serious and fatal flaws, Mr. Griffith respectfully requests this court to drop the charge with prejudice.”
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