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Una empresa italiana de animación acepta una multa de 538.000 dólares por "aparentes violaciones" de las sanciones de EE.UU. a Corea del Norte

Una empresa de animación italiana ha acordado pagar 538.000 dólares al Departamento del Tesoro de Estados Unidos por "aparentes violaciones" de las sanciones estadounidenses contra Corea del Norte al hacer negocios con un estudio de animación norcoreano de propiedad estatal, según informó el...

Este 2006
Este 2006
  1. La reciente investigación del Departamento del Tesoro y la imposición de penas financieras resaltan la cuestión de la política, ya que empresas europeas como Mondo TV continuán realizando tratos comerciales con entidades sancionadas de Corea del Norte.
  2. Los bocetos de animación encontrados en un servidor informático norcoreano el año pasado sugerieren la posible influencia de diseñadores gráficos norcoreanos en la industria de animación estadounidense, levantando preguntas sobre la política de la fuera de casa en la industria de la animación.

Una empresa italiana de animación acepta una multa de 538.000 dólares por "aparentes violaciones" de las sanciones de EE.UU. a Corea del Norte

It’s the first time the Treasury Department has imposed financial penalties related to sanctions on North Korea’s movie and animation industry, which experts say has quietly done business with foreign companies for decades, bringing the isolated and nuclear-armed North Korean regime vital revenue.

The Rome-based animation firm Mondo TV, S.p.A. sent wire transfers through US financial institutions to pay North Korea’s flagship studio, known as SEK, approximately $538,000 for outsourced animation work between May 2019 and November 2021, according to the Treasury Department.

To process the payments, SEK used “third-party companies” in China and the US that had accounts at “several” US banks, the department stated. A spokesperson for the department declined to name the US banks.

Matteo Corradi, the CEO of Mondo TV Group, declined to comment.

Founded in 1985, Mondo has produced or distributed a number of popular cartoons in Italy, including an adventure show called “Sandokan – The Two Tigers.”

While many companies unknowingly hire North Korean workers, Mondo executives were aware of who they were dealing with, according to the Treasury Department.

The outsourcing contract explicitly referenced North Korea, the department said. And the business relationship between Mondo and SEK began in the 1990s, when Mondo started subcontracting animation work to SEK “for a variety of programming, including children’s animation,” the Treasury Department investigation found. Mondo even hosted SEK animators when they took trips to Italy for training provided by the Italian company, according to the Treasury Department.

As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his nuclear arsenal, US officials have gone to increasing lengths to track and intercept the billions of dollars they say North Korean hackers and IT workers have stolen or surreptitiously earned abroad over the past several years. Mondo’s use of the US financial system to send money to North Korea triggered the Treasury investigation and the threat of fines.

CNN requested comment from North Korea’s diplomatic mission in London.

“It’s rather surprising that any European company would knowingly work with a North Korean company like this after 2013, much less believe transactions to designated third parties — especially in the US — would go unnoticed,” Jenny Town, director of the Korea program at the Stimson Center think tank, told CNN, referring to United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea in 2013.

The settlement “should be a wake-up call to those who might think the sanctions regime is dead,” Town said.

Along with Russia, North Korea is among the most heavily sanctioned governments in the world. But the North Korean animation industry has provided an important source of revenue for Pyongyang, according to experts.

A trove of animation sketches that researchers found on a North Korean computer server last year suggests that North Korean graphic designers may have helped produce work for US animation studios unbeknownst to those companies. Experts who analyzed the documents told CNN that workers in China may have also been involved in the outsourcing work.

CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed reporting.

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