The US Department of Justice does not intend to drop his federal criminal prosecution against Tornado Cash developer and co-founder Roman Storm, Decrypt reported on 15 May, with sources within the Doj.
The decision of the DOJ to continue, despite an internal memo that was distributed last month, which indicates a possible shift in the way in which the agency deals with crypto mixtures.
Storm will end up on federal charges, including money laundering and the emergence of sanctions.
Criminal charges
Federal Public Prosecutors claim that Storm is breaking together to wash funds white, avoid American sanctions and to control a money without a permit via Tornado Cash, a coin mixer-based coin mixer designed to cover up the origin and destination of crypto transactions.
The storm process will start in a federal courtroom in Manhattan in less than two months. The most recent court applications show that public prosecutors have agreed to drop part of the indictment in connection with the operation of a company without a permit, whereby inconsistencies are recognized with federal guidelines.
In 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) clarified that “non-required entities” such as Tornado-Contant money are not classified as money channels. The partial rollback of the DOJ emphasizes a tension between law enforcement and developers of decentralized software.
Amanda Tuminelli, executive director of the Defi Education Fund, said Decrypt that technologists who build neutral privacy tools should not be held to “unreasonable criminal standards”.
Her comments reflect the sentiment that prevails with leaders of the industry, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who continues to support a storm.
Case to continue despite shifting attitude
The re -confirmation of the Doj of Coordinations against Storm follows the leak of an internal memo that indicates that the agency would now give priority to persons who use crypto tools for criminal purposes instead of prosecuting the platforms themselves.
The shift has been interpreted as a sign of evolving policy under the more crypto-friendly Trump administration. However, the doj does not intend to drop his charges against storm.
In September the American district judge Katherine Polk Faila denied his motion to dismiss and ruled that the use of computer code to facilitate money laundering is not protected under the first amendment, despite the claims of storm about the security protection for his code.
The American treasury punished Tornado Cash in 2022 and claimed that the protocol had facilitated more than $ 7 billion in illegal transactions.
In March, however, the Office of Foreign Assets checked quietly removed Tornado Content money from the list of sanctions after a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal that unchanging smart contracts cannot be punished as property.
The co-developer of Storm, Alexey Ptsev, was sentenced by a Dutch court last year to more than five years in prison, but was released in February under electronic monitoring pending an appeal.
De Doj, Storm and his lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comments from the moment of press.
