Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm Will Stand Trial, DOJ Says

The Ministry of Justice said on Thursday that he would press forward with the accusations against Roman Storm, which he faced Ethereum mixer Tornado cash.

“The Government continues to try a storm for a deliberate conspiracy to commit money laundering, utmost sanctions, and transportation and transfer of funds he knew they were criminally derived,” said a spokesman for the laundry Decipheses.

Federal prosecutors will claim that Storm is involved in conspiracy to do money laundering, run a job with an unlicensed cash transmitter and avoid US sanctions at a trial in the Manhattan Court in less than two months, according to a submission of requests for court.

The impression, however, said that he would leave one aspect of his conspiracy to manage unlicensed business costs. The illegal job that transfers money is defined as one that does not in accordance with US money that transmits the requirements for registration of business, states in the Federal Law.

According to Peter Valkenburgh, the CEO of Coin Center, a non-profit research and advocacy group, this aspect of the UNOJ conspiracy charges was in conflict with the guidelines published in 2019 for the conduct of financial crimes or Fincen, the office of the US Treasury Department of Financial Crime.

Fincen’s guideline advised that “non-prickly subjects”, such as Tornado Gotovina, are not money transmitters, Valkenburgh said In the post on X, sometimes Twitter.

“Those who build neutral, unbearable technologies should not be considered unreasonable criminal standards based on the unbearable interpretations of the law,” said Amanda Tuminelli, Executive Director and CEO of Fund for Education Fund, said, she said Decipher.

Incoming -‘Confirmation of Charges against Storm follows Circulation memorandum Last month, who said he would no longer – in most cases – accuse of mixing services, among other entities such as exchange. In the memo, the launch also stated that he would start after bad actors who use the cryptocurrency service for washing funds, unlike the platform itself.

The advocates of the industry celebrated the Memorandum as evidence that the impression had rotated a new newspaper against the mixer under the cryptocurrency regime of US President Donald Trump. Proponents of privacy, including the Edward Snowden’s whistle, have described Services like Tornado Cash as nothing more than tools, which can help users maintain privacy on the chain.

Strom’s case was a trial after the US District Judge Katherine Polk Fail has rejected her proposal to reject a case in September. Although Storm claimed that his development of a cash tornado was protected as a free speech, Failla establish That the use of a computer code for further alleged money laundering is not an activity protected by the first amendment.

In March a US Treasury removed Tornado Gotovina from the list of entities sanctioned by the Office for Control of Foreign Property or Ofac. Restrictions that prevented anyone in the US to use the service were first imposed 2022. At the time, the US treasure trove said that Tornado Gotovina was used to “washing more than $ 7 billion” since its creation in 2019.

The US Treasury on the face followed several months after the appellant’s appealing court for the fifth round found that the agency had exceeded His authority in the sanctioning of cash tornado. The court found that unchanging smart contracts, which cannot be modified or controlled, should not be classified as assets, such as implied sanctions against Tornado Gotovina.

A year ago, the Dutch court sentenced Alexeya Pertse, another programmer of Gotovina Tornado, to 64 months in prison for laundering money. However, he was released From prison in February, while he was preparing to appeal, provided electronic monitoring.

Incoming, Storm and his lawyers did not immediately respond to a commentary request from Decipher.

Edited by James Rubin