Tornado Cash Developer Files For Dismissal of Money Laundering Charges

• Roman Storm has denied allegations indicting him of conspiracy to commit money laundering and violate sanctions.
• Storm’s lawyers told the court that building Tornado Cash is not the same as laundering money.
• Storm claimed he could not control Tornado Cash or prevent its use by Lazarus and similar entities.

Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm has denied allegations indicting him of conspiracy to commit money laundering and violate sanctions. Storm’s legal team filed a motion last Friday to dismiss the criminal indictment, claiming that building Tornado Cash is not the same as laundering money .

Storm’s legal challenges started last summer when the authorities indicted him and his fellow developer, Roman Semenov. Charges brought against the pair include conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter. The authorities also charged the Tornado Cash devs with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The allegations led to Storm’s arrest, although the authorities later released him on bail. In terms of specifics regarding the case, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Tornado Cash facilitated the laundering of over $1 billion by North Korea’s Lazarus and other similar groups. 

Excerpts from the motion filed by the lawyers argued Storm is a developer, and his only agreement, together with the members of his U.S.-based company, was to build software solutions to provide financial privacy to legitimate cryptocurrency users. They argued that the Tornado Cash developer did not commit any crime.

Further detail revealed the filed motion described Tornado Cash as a “set of non-custodial smart contracts in which users maintain complete ownership and control over their assets without the need to rely on any service provider or other intermediary.” Following the description, the lawyers argued that Tornado Cash is not a mixer or a service, as alleged.

According to Storm’s lawyers, the developer could not control Tornado Cash or prevent its use by Lazarus and similar entities. They noted that the blockchain privacy solution does not fit the definition of a “financial institution,” as users maintain control over their funds, and the protocol “did not charge any fee but was a free and open-source software tool.”