One of the co-founder of the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, who had been detained by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on August 23 on allegations of laundering money and other violations, was shortly released on bail.
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Crypto Community is Disappointed
On August 24, Storm’s attorney, Brian Klein, posted on X, announcing Storm was officially granted bail. Klein stated that he was nevertheless “very disappointed” by the prosecution’s decision to press charges against the developer solely based on his participation in the software development process.
Tornado Cash Co-founder Charges for Money Laundering
He argued: “Their novel legal theory has dangerous implications for all software developers.” Notably, the developers were charged by the U.S. authority for Tornado Cash operations and reportedly laundering over one billion dollars in “criminal proceeds.” There are further charges for “conspiracy to commit sanctions violations” and “conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
Detention of Tornado Cash Dev Alexey Pertsev
The detention of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev by Dutch authorities, who was subsequently declined bail, reportedly caused such a stir in the cryptocurrency community that Coinbase decided to support a class action lawsuit against the Department to defend users who were subjected to the restrictions.
In addition to this, The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on the mixer, a Tornado Cash Ethereum-based cryptocurrency for the alleged laundering of around $7 billion.
Roman Semenov also Charged by US Authorities
Along with Pertsev and Storm, Roman Semenov is another Tornado Cash developer who has been charged with violating the law. He is one of the co-founders of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency “mixer,” and as of August 23, he was reportedly added to the OFAC database of Specially Designated Nationals(SDN) and Blocked Persons.
The bail was authorized the day after the DOJ stated on August 23 that Storm and Roman Semenov, the creators of Tornado Cash, were officially arrested. Semenov and Storm are both accused of money laundering, participating in sanctions violations, and attempting to run an unlicensed financial-transmitting business, according to a statement released on this Wednesday.
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