A Russian bank that worked with the North Korean government held millions of dollars in the US.
A striking revelation has come to light: a Russian financial institution providing services for the North Korean administration possessed millions of dollars within the United States.
The assets were blocked, and upon order from a US court, transmitted to two US citizens who were tortured and perished in North Korean jails. Now, the bank has successfully reclaimed these funds from the American financial institution through a judgment in a Russian court.
Far Eastern Bank JSC, which managed the accounts of a North Korean state-owned airline, kept assets in a corresponding account at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. After the enforcement of penalties in 2022, DB's holdings were immobilized, and in November 2023, following a US court mandate, they were dispensed to the parents of Otto Warmbier, an Ohio student who passed away after detention in a North Korean prison.
American traveler Otto Frederick Warmbier was apprehended in Pyongyang in January 2016, allegedly for attempting to deface a political sign. A North Korean court condemned him to 15 years of hard labor. Eighteen months later, in June 2017, North Korean officials repatriated him to the United States in a comatose state. Pyongyang asserted he had contracted botulism, but US doctors disputed this assertion. It is more probable that the unfortunate individual attempted self-harm by hanging. He was rescued, but timely and necessary medical assistance was lacking.
In 2018, a US court instructed North Korea to provide Warmbier's parents with $501 million as restitution. The press deemed this verdict symbolic, given that North Korea demonstrably had no intention of paying and the US possessed no means of enforcing it. Nevertheless, in 2022, US authorities discovered a solution and started to seize assets connected to North Korea.
In November 2023, Frederick and Cindy Warmbier obtained the transfer of over $2.2 million from the restricted account of JSC Far Eastern Bank at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. The account’s restriction occurred in May 2022 after the US levied sanctions on the Russian bank for administering services to North Korean governmental bodies, including its national carrier, Air Koryo. That autumn, the parents submitted a private plea in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, appealing for the funds’ release to them. The US court decreed that the Russian bank had ties to North Korea. Notification to the concerned parties spanned almost a year, due to neither Russia nor North Korea being summoned to the court proceedings.
Naturally, the Russian bank requested the return of the money, along with accrued interest, and recently even prevailed in the Russian arbitration tribunal. However, this judgment might also be considered symbolic; the court lacks the capacity to compel the New York bank to remit payment.
