MADRID: Spanish police said Friday they have arrested a Spaniard wanted by the United States on charges of conspiring with a convicted American cryptocurrency researcher to help North Korea evade US sanctions.
The US Department of Justice last year charged Alejandro Cao de Pinos, who founded a pro-Pyongyang affinity organization, with recruiting researcher Virgil Griffiths to illegally provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to North Korea.
A US court sentenced Griffiths to five years and three months in prison in 2022 on charges of conspiring to help North Korea evade US sanctions using cryptocurrencies.
In a post Friday afternoon on the social media platform X, Cao de Pinos described the US accusations against him as “false.”
The Spanish National Police said in a statement that they discovered that Cao de Pinos was in Barcelona under a false identity and was planning to catch a train to Madrid.
He was arrested on Thursday at the capital's Atocha train station upon arrival.
A judicial source said that he appeared on Friday before a Supreme Court judge, who released him without conditions pending the extradition process.
The source added that the United States should formalize the request and provide the documents.
“There is no extradition. The American accusations, besides being false, do not exist in Spain,” Chaos de Pinos wrote on the X website.
A lawyer for Cao de Pinos, who could face 20 years in prison if convicted, could not immediately be identified.
(Published 21 February 2024, 03:14 he)
