Crypto entrepreneur who fled the FBI now works for Russian state media
Christopher Emms, the British blockchain pioneer wanted by the FBI for allegedly violating US sanctions against North Korea, has reportedly been hired to provide crypto commentary by Russian state broadcaster RT.
Emms was accused of organizing a crypto conference in Pyongyang, North Korea in April 2019, where he allegedly explained to the audience how blockchain could be used to avoid US sanctions.
He then made his way to Saudi Arabia. After winning an extradition case against the United States, the 31-year-old escaped to Russia.
Since settling in Moscow, Emms has wasted no time contributing to RT’s pro-Russian and anti-Western propaganda. One of his first productions is actually a lecture on inflation packed with an invective against the West.
In his lecture, Emms claims that inflation in the West is caused by pure money printing, and paints Russia as completely blameless. He also criticized the West’s financial support for Ukraine and expressed support for a multipolar world which, according to him, would bring a truly global free market.
In another feature, Emms applauds Russia’s test rollout of its digital ruble, and in another, he discusses how to break SWIFT’s monopoly on global payments.
Links with Maltese criminal lawyer exposed
Last week, independent outlet The Shift revealed that Emms runs a medical cannabis company in Malta with Gianluca Caruana Curran, a lawyer defending businessman Yorgen Fenech. Fenech is accused of having presided over the murder of journalist and anti-corruption activist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Caruana Curran has previously been charged with attempting to bribe a journalist in relation to the case.
The firm, Green Goblin Ventures, is co-owned by Emms through his Gibraltar-based company Emms Ventures Ltd. It shows no sign of activity in its registered public documents, and according to the company register, Caruana Curran also fills in as a shareholder of Emms’ other companies in Malta such as Gamesult.
Emms had partnered with the Maltese government on its ‘Blockchain Island’ campaign in 2017, which was meant to attract crypto businesses to set up shop in the country. Various companies and exchanges such as Binance actually moved some operations to Malta, after being tempted by legislation that offered tax incentives and light regulation.
Malta’s efforts to attract the crypto industry’s biggest hits were ultimately hampered by banks’ refusal to open accounts for crypto companies and a series of corruption scandals that earned the island a spot on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Gray List.
Emms takes a page from Snowden’s book
Before the country landed in Russia, most of Emms’s discourse had been largely apolitical. In fact, he defended his speech at the Pyongyang conference by claiming that he had to say the right words as expected by the North Korean hosts.
However, Emms’ flight to Russia and his blatant anti-Western propaganda appear to be taken straight from Edward Snowden’s playbook. Snowden traveled to Russia from Hong Kong in 2013, found work as a consultant for an unnamed IT security company, married and received Russian citizenship in 2022.
Read more: Zcash: Snowden wants it known he was not paid to attend crypto ceremony
Snowden, also a supporter of Bitcoin, has been extremely vocal in his criticism of the US and its so-called ‘military industrial complex.’ Recently, Snowden has retweeted posts from popular journalists and commentators who have been critical of the West’s support for Ukraine, including Glenn Greenwald and Aaron Maté.
He has also retweeted in support of Seymour Hersh’s story claiming that the Nordtsstream pipeline was blown up by a covert US special forces operation.
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