Tornado Cash Co-Founder Fights Back: Will Roman Storm’s Charges Be Dropped?

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Roman Storm, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, is pushing to have criminal charges against him dropped, following a major win in court. The Fifth Circuit Appeals Court recently ruled that the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions on Tornado Cash’s smart contracts were unlawful. This ruling could be a game-changer for Storm’s case, which involves serious charges, including money laundering. Moreover, the case went all in favor of Tornado Cash the sanctions helped the native token Torn jump 700% last month. 

The Court Ruled Out Sanction Clause

In its ruling, the appeals court made a bold statement by declaring that Treasury’s sanctions on Tornado Cash’s smart contracts were unlawful. As per the ruling, Tornado Cash’s smart contracts are immutable, meaning they can’t be changed or stopped by anyone, not even the creators.

The court also clarified that these contracts are not “property” under U.S. law, so they can’t be blocked or sanctioned by the government. With this key factor, Storm demanded that the court should also drop the severe charges of money laundering, especially the charges that he conspired to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which forced U.S. sanctions.

Storm’s Argument: No Control, No Crime

In the quest to fight back, Storm is using this ruling to argue that the charges against him are flawed. He insists that Tornado Cash isn’t a financial institution and that it became immutable back in May 2020—long before the alleged money-laundering accusations. Interestingly, he says there was no way he could have conspired to launder money using a protocol that couldn’t be controlled by anyone, including him. So in simple terms, there is no concrete evidence to prove that he did the money laundering using the platform. 

The case has drawn massive outrage and initially, the lawsuit was filed by the Tornado Cash users, backed by Coinbase, against the U.S. Treasury and its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Although the users initially lost the court case, the ruling was overturned in November 2023, giving Tornado Cash supporters a big win. 

The case is also a reflection of how the decentralized platforms are treated by US law agencies. The developer’s attempt to challenge the agencies will surely bring some immutable change for future cases. 

Past Crimes

In a similar instance, in August 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Tornado Cash co-founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto, including funds tied to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus.

Semenov is still on the run. The third co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands in 2022. Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 for approving unverified transactions and allowing cybercriminals to steal over $7 billion since 2019.