An American cryptocurrency researcher who pled guilty to helping North Korea evade sanctions has asked a U.S. district court for leniency, saying he acted “in the interest of peace” for a country he believed would “soon be swept into the dustbin of history.”

According to newly unsealed court documents from the New York Southern District Court, lawyers for Virgil Griffith, a blockchain researcher who spoke at a cryptocurrency conference in Pyongyang in April 2019, argued that a 24-month sentence and community service were commensurate with his crimes.

Griffith pled guilty last yearto violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act