Alejandro Cao de Benos, a Spanish citizen accused of conspiring with Ethereum Foundation developer Virgil Griffith to violate U.S. sanctions against North Korea, has been arrested. Spanish National Police said in a statement that they discovered that Cao de Benos was staying in Barcelona under a false identity and was planning to take a train to Madrid.
A judicial source said Cao de Benos appeared in the High Court on Friday and was released unconditionally pending extradition proceedings. The source added that the United States must formalize the request and submit documentation. Cao de Benos said in this regard: "There is no extradition. The accusations in the United States are not only false, they do not exist in Spain."
It is reported that the U.S. Department of Justice last year accused Alejandro Cao de Benos, who founded the pro-Pyongyang affinity group, of recruiting researcher Virgil Griffith to illegally provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to North Korea. Griffith was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by a U.S. court in 2022 for conspiring to use cryptocurrency to help North Korea evade U.S. sanctions. (Reuters)
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