The Russian arm of Interpol has arrested Christopher Emms in Moscow upon the "red notice" over accusations of helping North Korea with avoiding US sanctions, a Russian news channel on Telegram reported on Tuesday.
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Emms is accused of working with an American citizen — Virgil Griffith — to illegally provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to North Korea so that the Kim Jong-un regime could monetize its hacking efforts. According to the report, Emms was hoping to hide from international persecution in a hostel.
Emms reportedly proposed plans to create specialized smart contracts to serve North Korea's interests, and mapped out cryptocurrency transactions designed to evade US sanctions, the FBI said.
In April last year, a former Ethereum developer, Virgil Griffith, was sentenced to 63 months in prison and fined $100,000 over a trip to North Korea in 2019 where visitied a blockchain conference in Pyongyang organized by Emms and Alejandro Cao de Benós.
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