For assisting North Koreans in using cryptocurrency to dodge sanctions, former Ethereum engineer Virgil Griffith will serve 63 months in prison and pay a $100,000 fine.
Griffith pled guilty to one count of conspiring to breach UN sanctions on North Korea in September. Griffith was arrested in November 2019 after giving a discussion in Pyongyang at a Bitcoin conference in April.
Despite the fact that the offence carried a potential term of 20 years, Griffith’s plea agreement with federal prosecutors reduced the sentence to a range of 63 to 78 months — roughly five to 6.5 years. Griffith has already spent nearly two years in custody, albeit 14 of those months were spent on bail.
The remaining ten months will be counted as time served by the court.
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York handed down a sentence on Tuesday that was on the lower end of the prosecution’s prescribed sentencing guidelines and in keeping with the Department of Probation’s recommendation.
The defence is pleading for mercy.
Griffith and his attorneys had the opportunity to address the court with any final objections or statements before he was sentenced.
In the courtroom, Griffith, dressed in a khaki prison uniform, exchanged eyes with his elderly parents and other pals.
Griffith’s primary counsel, Brian Klein, requested Judge Castel to take into account variables that he claimed were not accounted for in the prosecution’s sentence guidelines, such as the severe conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, where Griffith has been imprisoned.
Griffith was subjected to “many truly hard and terrible situations” at MDC, including extended solitary confinement due to COVID-19 outbreaks, no family visits, limited access to blankets and warm clothes, and even being forced to use his sink as a toilet, according to Klein.
Because gangs in MDC control the cooks and commissary, Griffith has been confined to two or fewer meals per day, mainly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, according to Klein.
Klein requested that the judge consider calculating Griffith’s 10 months in jail as double time, and that his client be sent to Allenwood Low, a low-security federal prison in Pennsylvania, where he could be closer to extended relatives.
Klein also told Judge Castel about a recent psychological evaluation of Griffith that was conducted in prison and revealed that he was suffering from two personality disorders: narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) (OCPD). The disorders, according to his defence, explained his “obsession” with North Korea and his contempt for warnings from his family, friends, work, and the government not to travel there.
Griffith, according to Klein, has been “committed to therapy” and was determined to be “treatable” and “not likely to re-offend” by the psychiatrist.
When Griffith was given the chance to speak, he told the court that he had spent his time in prison reflecting on how he “genuinely, arrogantly, and erroneously thought I knew more” than his loved ones who had advised him against travelling to North Korea.
Griffith stated, “I’ve learnt my lesson.” “I’m still deeply embarrassed to be here and to have done what I’ve done.”
