A Chinese national has been extradited to the U.S. to face charges for allegedly raising illicit funds for North Korea through a tobacco-smuggling scheme, the U.S. Justice Department announced Monday.

Australian authorities handed over 53-year-old Jin Guanghua to the U.S. on Sept. 27, and the defendant made his first appearance in a Washington, D.C. court on Monday, according to a Justice Department press release.

Jin is accused of raking in $700 million for North Korea by using the U.S. financial system to process the illicit proceedings of a tobacco-selling scheme that ran from 2009-2019.

If convicted, he faces a