NEWSLETTER
ethereum researcher, Virgil Griffith, was released from prison custody on April 9, prison office officials (BOP) confirmed Cointelegraph.
<a target="_blank" data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/BrantlyMillegan/status/1909950339849003371″ rel=”null” target=”null” text=”null” title=”null”>According For cryptographic developer Branty Millegan, Griffith will remain in a house halfway for several weeks while waiting to complete the next steps in his probation process.
Griffith was arrested in 2019 for giving a conference on blockchain technology and his power to avoid US sanctions to a audience in North Korea.
Virgil Griffith is shown in the center with his parents immediately after his release from prison custody on April 9. Fountain: <a target="_blank" data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/BrantlyMillegan/status/1909950339849003371″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” text=”null” title=”https://x.com/BrantlyMillegan/status/1909950339849003371″>MILGAN BRUSHER
The United States government reclaimed The researcher violated the International Law on Emergency Economic Powers (IEEPA) by giving North Korea “highly technical information” despite the fact that the content of the conference is widely available the knowledge published on the Internet.
The Griffith case highlights the tension between blockchain developers and state powers as the nascent technology continues to create paths so that people and countries escape financial controls, censorship and surveillance.
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Virgil Griffith's legal battle against US prosecutors
In January 2020, a great American jury accused Griffith of conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, which gives the government's executive branch the power to restrict economic activity among US citizens and foreign powers that are considered adverse to the United States.
Griffith initially declared himself innocent of the charges. The software developer lawyers presented a motion to dismiss the case in October 2020, arguing that Griffith did not violate the law by presenting what public knowledge was already widely available.
Griffith at a crypto focused conference in 2019 to a North Korean audience. Fountain: Cointelegra/Department of Justice of the United States.
After a long legal battle, which took almost two years, Griffith declared himself guilty of violating sanctions laws as part of a guilt agreement with the United States government in September 2021.
The ethereum researcher was sentenced to 63 months in prison and was ordered to pay a fine of $ 100,000 by the court in April 2022. However, the legal battle did not end there.
Two years later, in April 2024, the investigator's lawyers presented a motion to reduce the prison sentence, that US prosecutors opposed, citing Griffith's actions as harmful to national security.
Despite the rejection of the prosecutors, the judge of New York, Kevin Castel, issued a ruling in July 2024, reducing the Griffth prison sentence to 56 months.
Magazine: Virgil Griffith's FBI's demolition for breaking the sanctions, first hand
