Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm will face charges in the USA.

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The developer of Tornado Cash Roman Storm will face charges in the USA

The U.S. Department of Justice intends to file criminal charges against the developer and co-founder of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, Roman Storm. This was reported by Decrypt, citing a representative of the agency.

Federal prosecutors claim that Storm conspired to launder money, evade U.S. sanctions, and conduct unlicensed money transfer business through Tornado Cash.

The trial is set to begin in less than two months. Recent court documents show that prosecutors have agreed to drop part of the charges related to operating a money transfer business without a license, acknowledging discrepancies with federal regulations.

In 2019, FinCEN clarified that "non-custodial organizations," such as Tornado Cash, are not classified as money transmitters.

"The provider of anonymizing software is not the sender of money. The rules exclude from the definition those individuals who only provide delivery, communication, or network access services used for transferring funds," the agency's guidelines state.

The investigation into Storm continues, despite a widely circulated internal memo last month regarding the change in the Ministry of Justice's approach to handling cases related to cryptocurrency mixing services. It stated that the agency would focus on prosecuting individuals using crypto tools for criminal purposes rather than prosecuting the platforms themselves.

Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev was sentenced in May 2022 to more than five years in prison for laundering $1.2 billion through a mixer, but was released under electronic monitoring in February 2025 while awaiting appeal.

Tornado Cash was sanctioned by OFAC in August 2022 due to its role in money laundering. According to U.S. authorities, since the inception of the service, criminals have funneled over $7 billion through it. Tornado Cash was notably used by the North Korean group Lazarus.

Recall that on January 21, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States lifted sanctions due to "overreach" by OFAC and remanded the case to the District Court for the Western District of Texas for further proceedings.

In March, the agency removed over 100 Ethereum addresses of the crypto mixer from the "blacklist."

At the end of April, the U.S. Federal Court prohibited OFAC from reinstating or imposing additional sanctions against the Tornado Cash service.

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