Virgil Griffith, a former Ethereum developer who was imprisoned for participating in a crypto conference in North Korea in 2019, was released from prison and is on its way to a half -way house, according to his lawyer, Alexander Urbelis.
Urbelis, Attorney General of the Ethereum name service, who also served as Griffith’s external adviser, published a photo of the newly released Griffith and his parents on X Wednesday standing in front of FCI Milano, Michigan prison with low security, where Griffith served part of his 56-month sentence.
“I am so happy to report that Virgil is out!” Urbelis wrote. “Happy day.”
Griffith was arrested in November 2019, seven months after returning from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, where he had attended a crypto conference. While at the conference, Griffith gave a presentation about Ethereum and explained how cryptocurrency could be used to avoid sanctions on the country. Although he initially fought for the charge, Griffith pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to violate international sanctions in 2021.
The New York judge, who oversees the case, sentenced him to a fine of $ 100,000 and 63 months or just over five years, prison – a fraction of the possible 20 -year sentence he was facing if he went to trial and lost. Last year, Griffith’s lawyers were successfully able to get his verdict reduced to 56 months with reference to his status as a first time offender.
Griffith has been imprisoned since mid -2021. Although he was originally released on bail after his arrest, a judge sent him back to prison in New York to await trial after he violated his security terms by trying to access one of his cryptocurrency accounts to pay his lawyers.
Urbelis told Coindesk that Griffith’s legal team has hope that he will soon be moved from his halfway house in Baltimore to home regulations.
“But the long -term consequences persist: Virgil will have to endure burdensome probation for several years if conditions are not yet known,” said Urbelis. “And on top of this placed Department of Commerce serious export restrictions on Virgil, which will extend until 2032 and which would make his life very difficult.”
The Department of Commerce’s limitations forbids Griffith to participate either directly or indirectly in any transaction involving software or technology that will be exported from the United States, Urbelis said and returned to working in the crypto industry difficult, if not impossible.
Griffith is looking for a pardon from President Donald Trump’s administration, as Urbelis said was an “ongoing process” they had made “great progress” on.
“We are looking for a pardon to bring justice to a prosecution that we believe was weakened and fundamentally unmerakan from the start, to Better Virgil’s life and to ensure that Virgil has [the] Ability to contribute to a world that so desperately needs thinkers and doing like him, ”said Urbelis.
Trump has pardoned a number of people convicted of crypto-related criminal charges, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and former Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes and three people convicted of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). More and more convicted crypto criminals, including the former FTX administrative director and scammer Sam Bankman-Fred, are hopeful of their own pardon.
