An Alabama hacker was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday on charges that he provided information about cryptocurrency to North Korea despite a federal ban.

Virgil Griffith was presented in federal court today, charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Griffith knew “this information could be used to help North Korea launder money and evade sanctions.”

If found guilty, he could face a maximum term of 20 years in prison.

“In allegedly doing so, Griffith jeopardized the sanctions that both Congress and the president have enacted to place maximum pressure on North Korea’s dangerous regime,” Berman said.

Griffith, 36, a Tuscaloosa native, is a well-known computer hacker who grew up in Tuscaloosa and then attended the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile before enrolling at UA where he was a member of Mallet Assembly. He then transferred to Indiana University where he took some classes but ultimately returned to graduate from UA with a degree in cognitive and computer sciences.

Griffith went on to earn a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology and worked in Silicon Valley. Federal prosecutors say he is now a resident of Singapore.

According to the New York Times, he first gained national attention during his freshman year at the University of Alabama, when he and another student found and exploited security flaws in a program used to administer campus ID cards. The action was the subject of a lawsuit that was later settled out of court, the paper reported.

According to the indictment, Griffith entered North Korea by travelling through China.

In a statement, Assistant Attorney General John Demers said Griffith went to North Korea despite warnings not to go. FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said Griffith knew what he was doing was against the law.

“We cannot allow anyone to evade sanctions, because the consequences of North Korea obtaining funding, technology, and information to further its desire to build nuclear weapons put the world at risk,” Sweeney said. "It’s even more egregious that a U.S. citizen allegedly chose to aid our adversary.”

According to the indictment, Griffith went to the “Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference” in April of this year. After it, prosecutors say he began formulating plans for an exchange of cryptocurrency between North and South Korea, and encouraged other U.S. citizens to travel to North Korea to attend next year’s conference.

Cryptocurrency is electronic currency not issued by governments, while Blockchain records movements of cryptocurrency.

Griffith also announced his intention to renounce his U.S. citizenship and began researching how to purchase citizenship from other countries, prosecutors said.

2600 Magazine, a quarterly for hackers, issued a statement through Twitter: