Virgil Griffith, a U.S. citizen residing in Singapore and cryptocurrency expert, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by giving North Korea technical advice on how to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to skirt U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Griffith began formulating his plans in 2018, traveling to Pyongyang in 2019 to attend the Pyongyang Blockain and Cryptocurrency Conference. The State Department denied Griffith the right to travel to North Korea, but he went anyway, giving presentations to the North Korean audience, knowing full well that this violated sanctions, the Department of Justice said.

A rare cuneiform tablet with a portion of the ancient literary work Epic of Gilgamesh was returned to Iraq after a federal district court ordered that retail giant Hobby Lobby forfeit the tablet, the Justice Department said. A repatriation ceremony was held Sept. 23 at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The tablet originated in Iraq but then was illegally entered into the U.S. by an auction house that then sold it to Hobby Lobby. The retail chain purchased the tablet to display it at the Museum of the Bible, also in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement seized the tablet, which was ordered July 27 to be returned to Iraq (see 2107280028).

Jahziah Roy Lewis, a United Kingdom citizen, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for exporting firearms outside the U.S. and for conspiring to straw purchase firearms, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Sept. 20. Lewis and two accomplices were charged as part of an international weapons trafficking conspiracy to buy and ship around 36 firearms from the U.S. to the U.K. and the Caribbean through the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Justice said. All three co-conspirators claimed to be the actual buyers of the firearms when in fact the actual recipient was someone else. The guns were shipped abroad concealed in household items and using false names on shipping labels, the U.S. attorney said. Many of the guns, bought in Georgia, were recovered in the U.K. and in St. Kitts, having been tied to various criminal networks abroad.

Three former U.S. intelligence community or military members -- Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke -- entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay more than $1.68 million to resolve export control violation charges, the Department of Justice said. The trio worked as senior managers at a United Arab Emirates-based company that carried out computer hacking operations to benefit the UAE government during 2016 to 2019, DOJ said. All three were told repeatedly that their work constituted a “defense service” under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, requiring a license from the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Nevertheless, all three continued their hacking without a license, court documents laid out.

Iranian national Mehrdad Ansari, a resident of the United Arab Emirates and Germany, was sentenced Sept. 14, after a May 2021 conviction by a federal jury (see 2105100007), to 63 months in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Department of Justice said. Ansari was convicted for his role in a scheme to obtain military sensitive parts for Iran in violation of the Iranian Trade Embargo, DOJ said. This scheme sought to obtain many dual-use military and civilian goods that could be used for many elements of Iran's armed forces, including for “nuclear weapons, missile guidance and development, secure tactical radio communications, offensive electronic warfare, military electronic countermeasures (radio jamming) and radar warning and surveillance systems,” DOJ said.

Three members of a Florida family were charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran and money laundering, the Department of Justice said. Mohammad Faghihi, along with his wife, Farzeneh Modarresi, and sister, Faezeh Faghihi, led Florida-based Express Gene -- a company that allegedly received multiple wire transfers from accounts in Malaysia, China, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, totaling nearly $3.5 million, between October 2016 and November 2020. Some of this money allegedly was used to buy and then ship genetic sequencing equipment to Iran without a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ said.

Hong Kong-based apparel company, Changji Esquel Textile (CJE), should not be granted a preliminary injunction against its placement on the Commerce Department's Entity List, the U.S. argued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Resuming litigation after talks between Commerce and CJE broke down (see 2108300058), the Department of Justice said CJE is unlikely to succeed in its case and that the company has not established certain and imminent irreparable harm (Changji Esquel Textile Co. Ltd., et al. v. Gina M. Raimondo, et al., D.D.C. #21-1798).

The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked the export privileges of a Chilton, Wisconsin, man after he was convicted Dec. 13, 2019, of violating the Arms Export Control Act, the agency said in a September order. Andy Lloyd Huebschmann was convicted of illegally exporting defense articles to Australia, BIS said, including a “Model GA 9mm lower receiver, upper receiver, barrel, trigger control group, bolt carrier, and pistol grip,” all controlled under the U.S. Munitions List. BIS said Huebschmann didn’t have the required State Department export license to ship the items. He was sentenced to two years in prison, one year of supervised release, a $15,000 criminal fine and a $100 “assessment.” BIS revoked Huebschmann’s export privileges for 10 years from the date of conviction.

Byungsu Kim, a South Korean national extradited to the U.S. from South Africa, pleaded guilty to attempting to illegally export Dudleya succulent plants, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California said. Kim pulled the plants, worth more than $600,000, from the ground at various state parks in Northern California and attempted to ship them to Asia. Kim carried out the scheme with two co-defendants: Bong Jun Kim, who served a four-month prison sentence, and Youngin Back, who remains a fugitive.

The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked export privileges for seven people for illegally exporting firearms and other defense goods without licenses, according to enforcement orders released this week.