The United States on Monday charged

two Europeans with conspiring with

an American cryptocurrency expert

who is in prison for helping North

Korea circumvent US sanctions over its

nuclear program.

Virgil Griffith, 39, was sentenced earlier

this month to 63 months in jail for

advising Pyongyang on how to create

cryptocurrency services and blockchain

technology to evade the sanctions.

Federal prosecutors say Spaniard

Alejandro Cao de Benos, founder of a

pro-North Korean affinity organization,

and Briton Christopher Emms, a

cryptocurrency businessman, recruited

Griffith to provide the services.

Both defendants are at large, the US

Attorney's Office for the Southern

District of New York said in a statement.

The prosecutors accuse Cao de Benos

and Emms of arranging for Griffith

to travel to North Korea in April 2019

to the Pyongyang Blockchain and

Cryptocurrency Conference that they

had organized.

At the conference, Emms and Griffith

"provided instruction on how the

DPRK could use blockchain and

cryptocurrency technology to launder

money and evade sanctions, the

prosecutors alleged.

In the audience were "individuals whom

they understood worked for the North

Korean government," the statement

added. 

The instruction was "all for the purpose

of evading US sanctions meant to stop

North Korea's hostile nuclear ambitions"

added Damian Williams, the US attorney

in Manhattan.

The accused later allegedly worked to

conceal their activity. 

The United States prohibits the export of

goods, services or technology to North

Korea without special permission from

the Treasury Department's Office of

Foreign Assets Control.

Cao de Benos, 47, and Emms, 30, are

charged with one count of conspiring to

violate and evade US sanctions, which

carries a maximum sentence of 20 years

in prison.

Griffith, who holds a doctorate from

the California Institute of Technology,

pleaded guilty to get a reduced

sentence. 

pdh/sst