A British national wanted on an Interpol Red Notice for consulting North Korea on cryptocurrency has been detained in Moscow. US authorities allege the man helped the Pyongyang regime evade sanctions using digital assets.
UK citizen wanted by US for violating North Korea sanctions detained in Moscow hostel
The Russian Interpol Bureau arrested a British man wanted by Interpol at the request of the United States, the Russian channel Telegram Baza revealed. US authorities claim he was assisting the North Koreans in their efforts to circumvent sanctions using cryptography.
Christopher Emms, 31, accused of committing fraud against the US government, was arrested at the hostel where he was staying. The International Criminal Police Organization issued a ‘red notice’ arrest warrant for him in early February. Is advertisement details:
Christopher Douglas Emms is wanted for allegedly conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
More specifically, he was conspiring to violate US sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) by working with a US citizen to illegally provide blockchain and cryptocurrency technology services to the DPRK.
In early 2018, Emms, who is a crypto entrepreneur, planned and organized the “Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference,” the agency explained. He also recruited a cryptocurrency expert from the United States and organized his trip to the country in April 2019 for the event.
Both answered questions about blockchain technologies and crypto from the North Korean audience, including people who work for the government in Pyongyang. They also proposed plans to create smart contracts for the DPRK and mapped out crypto transactions designed to avoid US sanctions.
Despite Emms taking steps to hide his activity, the American crypto expert was arrested in November 2019, disrupting the scheme. The Briton and his co-conspirator Alejandro Cao de Benós, a Spanish political activist with close ties to North Korea, never obtained permission from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to lend. services to the DPRK, as required by US law.
A federal arrest warrant has been issued for Christopher Emms in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, on January 27, 2022, after the British national was charged with conspiracy to violate the IEEPA.
Interpol also said that Emms is known to have resided in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was in Saudi Arabia around March 2022. He also had various business interests in multiple jurisdictions, including the UAE, Malta, Gibraltar and around the world. Europe. Baza noted that he apparently decided to wait out the turbulent times in Russia, where he is now under arrest.
North Korea is believed to have stolen a record amount of cryptocurrency last year, according to a draft UN report. An estimate cited by the authors, independent sanctions monitors, suggests that the total value of virtual assets obtained by DPRK-linked hackers in 2022 is higher than in any previous year, exceeding $1 billion.
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