How to finance a dictatorship

Monday, March 14, 2022, 20:00 – 21:30

Have you wondered how dictatorships get financed despite the heavy international sanctions that they face? Naturally, one way to overcome the restrictions is cybercrime. The so-called Lazarus Group is estimated to have stolen up to 2 billion dollars [in 2016]. Not much is known about them apart from the fact that they are a collective of North Korean cybercriminals hacking various financial institutions for money to fund the heavily sanctioned nation and its nuclear program.

Cryptocurrencies are also seen as a solution for corrupt governments: dictatorships see the underlying blockchain technologies as a way to avoid sanctions due to the varying levels of anonymity they provide in digital transfers. Venezuela, El Salvador and other countries are adopting cryptocurrency, including Russia, which is trialling a ‘digital ruble’ as Moscow seeks to evade international sanctions.

Together with SIB Groningen and our Speakers Jason Bartlett and Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, we will look at the links between cybercrime and crypto technology as sanction evasion tactics for dictatorships.

Speakers

Jason Bartlett, a Research Assistant for the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at Centre for a New American Security, is a sanctions and financial crime expert with regional focus on North Korea, Venezuela, and Iran.

Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, an assistant professor in International Political Economy at the Department of International Relations and International Organization, is an expert on blockchain technologies and financial & security governance.

SIB Groningen

SIB is the Dutch United Nations Students Association and Groningen's largest international student association. Almost half of its members are international, and all activities are in English. The association regularly organises intellectual activities about important political, societal and global questions and travels the world with several trips every year.

For more information, visit their website here.