Tornado Cash Developer Presents Legal Arguments in an Effective Motion to Dismiss Charges
Bitcoin mixer Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm has moved to dismiss all three accusations against him, arguing that he was never involved in money laundering or a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
On March 29, Storm’s legal team submitted a document to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York arguing that their client cannot be charged with money laundering conspiracy.
Tornado Cash was created, became unchangeable, and was made publicly accessible prior to its use by the hacker organizations sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury, according to Storm’s legal team.
Their position is that Storm was unable to fully prohibit a “sanctioned entity from utilizing it” when the alleged misbehavior took place.
Claiming that Tornado Cash helped the North Korean Lazarus Group avoid U.S. sanctions, the claims against Storm center on the possibility that the government was able to fund its nuclear development.
Due to the lack of fees and the fact that customers had complete control over their cryptocurrency, Storm’s legal team further argued that Tornado Cash did not function as a money-transmitting service.
Claiming that Storm’s true goal was to create software that would allow legitimate bitcoin users to keep their financial data private, they called the accusations against him “fatally defective and should be disregarded.”
After posting a $2 million bail upon his arrest in September 2023, Storm entered a not guilty plea to all counts.
At this time, he is unable to leave certain areas of California, Washington, New Jersey, and New York due to travel restrictions.
This news comes as the United States government continues its assault on services that combine cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Fog, a crypto-mixing firm worth $400 million, had its creator convicted of money laundering not long ago.
The charges against Roman Sterlingov included money laundering, conspiracy to launder money, running a money-transmitting company without a license, and breaking the D.C. Money Transmitters Act.
Storm reached out to right-to-privacy activists earlier this year in an effort to garner support for his impending criminal prosecution.
Storm said back then that his defense team was hard at work preparing for his trial in September 2024. This legal struggle will impact everyone, whether you’re a dedicated developer like me who’s working on Web3 or someone who just cares about software and privacy. According to him, this case would have far-reaching consequences.
As a countermeasure, the Arbitrum DAO put up a proposal requesting that Storm get almost $1.3 million in Arbitrum (ARB) tokens from the community wallet.
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