Alejandro Cao de Benos He is a Catalan, a native of Tarragona, founder of the Korea Friendship Association and which has been identified for 20 years as special delegate of the Ministry of Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of the government of North Korea.
This Monday, The FBI has issued a search and seizure warrant. against Cao de Benós, whom he accuses of conspire with a US citizen help North Korea evade some of the economic sanctions imposed by the US.
Cao de Benós, 47 years old and who works as unofficial representative of North Korea in Spainfaces a maximum of 20 years in prison in the United States for the crimes of which he is accused. Catalan, which has an aristocratic origin, has previously had problems with the Spanish justice being allegedly involved in a arms trafficking plot which was dismantled six years ago.
The supporter of Kim Jong-un’s regime has been accused of recruit a “cryptocurrency expert” to provide services to the North Korean government during a conference on technology in Pyongyang that he organized himself in 2018, the FBI has assured.
The American investigative agency has detailed that the man facilitated the trip of American expert Virgil Griffith to the Asian country to attend the conference and which organized a second event on the subject in 2020.
Help from a British citizen
Griffith, a former developer of the Ethereum cryptocurrencyHe pleaded guilty last year to plotting to help North Korea evade sanctions and was sentenced in the United States to more than five years in prison and a fine of $100,000. Now the FBI has accused Cao de Benós of taking “measures to hide these activities from the US authorities”who has assured in a tweet that he does not know why they are looking for him: “I don’t know why everyone is looking for me today. I am in Jerusalem, next to Golgotha eating a falafel durum,” he wrote on Twitter.
I don’t know why everyone is looking for me today. I’m in Jerusalem, next to Golgotha, eating a falafel durum. pic.twitter.com/AYGcIflu1O
– Alejandro Cao (@DPRK_CAODEBENOS) May 23, 2022
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The Catalan would have also had the help of a British citizenChristopher Douglas Emms, who was imputed together with Cao de Benós in April by the Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of New York for “conspiring” together with Griffith to “illegally supplying cryptocurrencies and blockchain-powered services” to Pyongyang.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a federal arrest warrant at the end of January against Cao de Benós for allegedly conspiring to violate the Law of Economic Faculties in Cases of International Emergencies (IEEPA, in English), which allows the United States to establish economic sanctions against countries that “pose a threat”.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.