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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
This is the first article by John McGlynn in a series that meticulously dissects US charges of North Korean criminality, notably the forgery of US currency and money laundering, the significance of the legal instruments it has imposed on North Korea through Banco Delta Asia, and the significance of US actions for the resolution of the interrelated issues of North Korean nuclear weapons and the normalization of US-North Korean relations.
1. Press Release, “Leader of Irish Workers' Party and Official Irish Republican Army Arrested in United Kingdom on U.S. Indictment Charging Trafficking in Counterfeit United States Currency”, Kenneth L. Wainstein, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, October 8, 2005.
2. IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Grand Jury sworn in on September 30, 2004. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. SEAN GARLAND, also known as “the Man with the Hat”, CHRISTOPHER JOHN CORCORAN, also known as “Christie”, DAVID LEVIN, also known as David Batikovich Batikian, also known as Gedimin Gotautas, also known as “Russian Dave”, also known as “Doctor”, TERENCE SILCOCK, also known as “Terry”, HUGH TODD, also known as F. B. Rawing, also known as Peter Keith Clark, ALAN JONES, and MARK ADDERLEY, Defendants. (Capitalization is in original document.)
3. The date the indictment was returned is stated in the October 8, 2005 press release issued by the US Attorney for the District of Colombia.
4. David L. Asher, “The North Korean Criminal State, its Ties to Organized Crime, and the Possibility of WMD Proliferation,” Policy Forum Online 05-92A: November 15th, 2005.
5. Josh Meyer and Barbara Demick, “Counterfeiting Cases Point to North Korea, Pyongyang is accused of being behind a growing effort to print and move rafts of U.S. $100 bills”, Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2005.
6. Attorney of the United States in and for the District of Columbia, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. SEAN GARLAND, Conspiracy to Commit Counterfeit Acts Outside the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 371, 470 and 473).
7. Rebecca Allison, “Three jailed for $27m counterfeit dollars scam,” The Guardian, July 27, 2002.
8. Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2005.
9. Demetri Sevastopuloin, “US pursues former IRA chief over forged dollars”, Financial Times, March 27, 2006.
10. Website of the Campaign to Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland to the United States, Sean Garland's November 17, 2005 letter to The Irish Times.
11. Jon Silverman (legal affairs analyst), “Extradition ‘imbalance’ faces Lords' test,” February, 22 2005, BBC News.
12. The extradition treaty (the “Treaty”) between the United States and the United Kingdom was signed on March 31, 2003 by then UK Home Secretary David Blunkett and US Attorney General John Ashcroft. Certain provisions in the Treaty took effect in the UK by the entry into force of the Extradition Act 2003 on January 1, 2004. The 2003 Treaty was formally approved by the US Senate on September 29, 2006 and the US Treaty Approval Document was signed by President Bush on December 6, 2006.
13. Editorial, “An unequal relationship,” The Independent, 11 July 2006.
14. An entry for Sean Garland at the open encyclopedia Wikipedia website states that he was born in Dublin.
15. Website of the Campaign to Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland to the United State, Sean Garland responds to “Agenda” article in Irish Times on Monday 17th October 2005
16. Some allowance also has to be made for the fact that the US Attorney has no doubt reserved his strongest evidence for a possible future trial.
17. As the indictment explains: “In 1996, the United States began to issue a redesigned $100 bill; a distinctive feature of the change was that the portrait of Benjamin Franklin appearing in the center of the bill was significantly enlarged. Thereafter, the older bills were commonly referred to as ‘small heads’ and the new bills were commonly referred to as ‘big heads’. Four security features of the ‘big heads’ were the use of a particular optically variable ink (”OVI“), the use of an enhanced embedded security thread, a security watermark, and changed microprinting.”
18. Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2005.
19. That these three are still officially wanted was confirmed in an email received from a spokesperson working in the office of the US Attorney for DC.
20. The High Court, Between: Christopher Corcoran Plaintiff And Deputy Commissioner T.P. Fitzgerald Defendant, Record Number: 2002 No. 301 SP, Judgment of Mr Justice Michael Peart delivered on the 12th day of May 2005.
21. This author has yet to write the Home Secretary.
22. Website of the Campaign to Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland to the United States, Letter to The Irish Times, November 17, 2005.
23. “The Superdollar Plot,” BBC News (summary information about a BBC Panorama documentary titled “The Superdollar Plot” broadcast on British TV on June 20, 2004), June 14, 2004.
24. A link to a transcript of the “The Superdollar Plot” BBC documentary.
25. The Use and Counterfeiting of United States Currency Abroad, a September 2006 report jointly prepared by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the U.S. Secret Service. Table 6.7. Available through the US Treasury Department's website : (scroll to the bottom of Treasury's press release to find the link to the 2006 report).
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