International criminal or naive crypto geek? Man wanted by FBI over trip to North Korea

I must have missed the sitting of US Congress where they passed legislation making naivety a crime.

But if that is indeed now a prosecutable offence, then we might as well lock up Chris Emms and throw away the key. 

Guilty as charged your honour.

Yet instead, the British national is facing a much more real criminal investigation, wanted by the FBI for allegedly "conspiring to violate United States sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)".

Specifically, US prosecutors claim this happy-go-lucky 30-year-old helped organise a cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang in 2018, where foreign guest speakers taught locals how to evade sanctions.

Emms categorically denies the accusations, and believes this is some sort of horrible misunderstanding.

Having spoken with Emms, I can't help but agree with him.

The reason I feel for him is because we have two shared experiences: both having travelled to North Korea on bizarre tours, and both dealing with the even more bizarre North Korean mouthpiece Alejandro Cao de Benos.

I've come to know Cao de Benos reasonably well over the years.

The scheming Spaniard has weirdly crafted out a role as the gatekeeper and spruiker in chief for North Korea internationally.

He's a charming guy, until he's not. Perhaps inspired by the leadership in Pyongyang, once you overstep the line with Cao de Benos, you're a mortal enemy and will be dealt with accordingly.

Admittedly he was very helpful with getting me and 60 Minutes cameras into North Korea, but then turned on us when he realised we wanted to expose his work in doing dodgy deals to help North Korea evade international sanctions.

Emms didn't know any of this about Cao de Benos when he received a message out of the blue one day inviting him to speak at a cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang.

Anyone with even the vaguest knowledge of global affairs understands doing any sort of business with North Korea is playing with fire.

Yet Emms insists he was not involved in organising in or profiting from the event, and that this was simply a trip to an interesting part of the world.

Further to that, he is adamant nothing was discussed at the conference which wasn't already readily available via a quick Google search.

But when a fellow attendee was arrested by the FBI, and subsequently jailed for five years, it became abundantly clear to Emms he was in big strife.

No matter what way you look at this, Emms has made an awful mistake.

But there are two questions we must now ask.

Has he committed a crime? That's very debatable.

And when it comes to the turmoil thrust upon his life in the last six months, does the punishment fit the (alleged) crime? Absolutely not.