A British national wanted by an Interpol red notice for advising North Korea on cryptocurrency has been detained in Moscow. US authorities allege that the man helped the regime in Pyongyang bypass sanctions using digital assets.
A British citizen wanted by the US for violating North Korean sanctions is arrested in a Moscow hostel
The Russian Interpol office arrested a Briton wanted by Interpol at the request of the United States, the Russian Telegram channel Baza. open. Authorities in the United States claim that he was assisting the North Koreans in efforts to circumvent sanctions using cryptocurrency.
Thirty-one-year-old Christopher Eames, accused of fraud against the US government, was arrested at the motel where he was staying. The International Criminal Police Organization issued a “red” arrest warrant for him at the beginning of February. that it advertisement details:
Christopher Douglas Eames is wanted for conspiracy 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 cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to the DPRK.
The agency explained that in early 2018, Emms, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, planned and organized the “Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference.” He also recruited a cryptocurrency expert from the US and arranged for him to travel to the country in April of 2019 to attend the event.
Both answered questions about blockchain and crypto technologies from the North Korean public, including people working for the government in Pyongyang. They also proposed plans to create smart contracts for the DPRK and charted cryptocurrency transactions designed to avoid US sanctions.
Despite Emms taking steps to conceal their activity, an American cryptographer was arrested in November 2019, disrupting the scheme. The Briton and his co-conspirator Alejandro Cao de Pinos, a Spanish political activist with close ties to North Korea, did not obtain permission from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to provide services to the DPRK, as required by the US. United. Law.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for Christopher Eames in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, on January 27, 2022, after the British citizen was charged with conspiracy to violate the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (IEEPA).
Interpol also said that Emms is known to have resided in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was in Saudi Arabia in or around March 2022. He also had various business interests in multiple jurisdictions, including the United Arab Emirates, Malta and Gibraltar, and throughout Europe. Baza indicated that he apparently decided to wait out the hard times in Russia, where he is now under arrest.
It is believed that North Korea has stolen Record amount of cryptocurrency last year, according to a draft UN report. An estimate cited by the authors, the independent sanctions monitors, indicates that the total value of virtual assets acquired by DPRK-linked hackers in 2022 is greater than in any previous year and exceeds $1 billion.
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