SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 23 – Virgil Griffith, charged with violating North Korea sanctions in connection with a crypto-currency conference there, will now seek to get the case moved for lack of venue out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
This emerged at a telephone conference in the case on May 18. Griffith's defense lawyer Brian E. Klein said he is ready to file a motion on venue as early as this Friday May 22, based on "ex parte, in camera" filings he made with SDNY Judge P. Kevin Castel.
Inner City Press, which has covered the case from Griffith's first appearance in the SDNY Magistrates Court to his Christmas holiday legal moves to get released to home confinement in Alabama, immediately sought the still-sealed documents in this criminal case, see below.
On July 20, Klein requested for Griffith restored access to the Internet, telling Judge Castel in letter here on Patreon that while on leave from Ethereum another unnamed company has offered to make him a consultant, but that Klein would wants it name sealed : "While he has been placed on leave by his former employer during the pendency of these charges, he has been offered one consulting contract, which can be submitted to the Court under seal."
Now on July 23, just before a conference in the case, the US Attorney office has opposed, offering these quotes from the North Korea conference: "Hello everyone, I know it’s late in the day so I’ll try to make this fun. So the most important feature of blockchain is that they are open. And the DPRK can’t be kept out no matter what the US or the UN says. . . . One of the more interesting things is that blockchain allow greater self-reliance in both banking and contracts. So you can have contracts without an authority. . . . So you heard about with blockchain the USA can’t stop your payments. That’s like, that is step 1, and step 2 is the UN can’t stop agreements. So if the DPRK makes agreements with someone, or if an individual does, it’s um, you can um you don’t have to go to a court." They quote Griffith on text message: "on October 2, 2019, the defendant, in a text exchange with family members, noted that he might be fired from his cryptocurrency company and stated that, if he was, he might instead “setup a money laundering company in North Korea.” We'll have more on this.
Judge Castel to his credit the same day asked each side's counsel to respond: "The Court has received an application from Inner City Press for the unsealing of certain applications by the defendant for the issuance of subpoenas. The parties shall respond to the application by May 22, 2020. If there is no objection, the Court will order the applications and any resulting order unsealed."
On May 29, Judge Castel ruled: "Defendant is directed to file forthwith on ECF his ex parte and in camera applications for subpoenas pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17. (Signed by Judge P. Kevin Castel on 5/29/2020) (ap)."
And now they have been filed: a March 17 letter and affirmation, and the subpoena itself, for "A list of any and all IP addresses associated with the email address dprk.un@verizon.net, and any logs or similar records of access to the email address dprk.un@verizon.net, for the period from November 1, 2018 to October 30, 2019."
Inner City Press has uploaded the application, affirmation and subpoena on Patreon here.
An aside: the application of diplomatic immunity and/or the Vienna convention to this subpoena, and Verizon's response to it, remain UNclear.
On June 1, Griffith's lawyer filed a motion to dismiss for lack of venue, stating that Griffith's email to the North Korea Mission in New York, responded to, might not have been "received" in New York. Inner City Press is tweeting the photo here. Watch this site.
On May 28, from Judge Castel again to his credit, this: "ORDER as to Virgil Griffith. The government advises that the defendant consents to public disclosure of his ex parte and in camera application for a subpoena pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17 (the Application) but does not consent to advance disclosure of the Application to the government. To enable the government to intelligently state its position on public disclosure, defendant shall transmit the Application to the government by 1 p.m. today, May 28, 2020. The government shall state whether it has any objection to public disclosure by 1 p.m. on May 29, 2020. The Court will thereafter rule on whether the Application should be publicly filed (Signed by Judge P. Kevin Castel on 5/28/20)(jw)." Watch this site.
The case is US v. Griffith, 20-cr-15 (Castel).
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