The United States Ministry of Justice does not intend to suppress its federal criminal charges against the promoter of Tornado Cash and Roman co-founder Storm, said Decrypt on May 15, citing sources within the Doj.
The DoJ’s decision to proceed occurs despite an internal memo circulated last month signaling a potential change in the way the agency manages cases involving crypto mixing services.
Storm is judged on federal accusations, including money laundering and sanctions.
Criminal charges
Federal prosecutors allege that Storm has conspired to whiten the funds, escape American sanctions and exploit a silver transmission company without license through Tornado Cash, a piece of parts based on Ethereum designed to obscure the origin and destination of cryptographic transactions.
The Storm trial is expected to start in a Federal Manhattan courtroom in less than two months. The most recent court documents show that prosecutors have agreed to delete part of the accusation linked to the exploitation of a money transmission company without license, recognizing inconsistencies with federal directives.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen) said in 2019 that “non -guardian entities” such as Tornado Cash are not classified as silver issuers. The partial rollback of the DOJ highlights a tension between the police and the developers of decentralized software.
Amanda Tuminelli, Executive Director of the DEDUCE FUND, told DECRYPT that technologists building neutral confidentiality tools should not be held to “unreasonable criminal standards”.
His comments echo the widespread feeling among industry leaders, including the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, who continues to support Storm.
Case to continue despite the exchange position
The reaffirmation of accusations against Storm by the DoJ follows the flight of an internal memo indicating that the agency would now favor the pursuit of individuals using cryptographic tools for criminal purposes rather than pursuing the platforms themselves.
The change was interpreted as a sign of evolution of the policy within the framework of the more friendly Trump administration of the crypto. However, the Doj does not intend to drop its charges against Storm.
In September, US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla rejected her request in dismissal, judging that the use of the IT code to facilitate money laundering is not protected by the first amendment, despite the protection allegations of Storm’s freedom of expression for her code.
The US Treasury sanctioned the Tornadians in 2022, saying that the protocol had facilitated more than $ 7 billion in illicit transactions.
However, in March, the control of foreign assets discreetly withdrew the treasury from its list of sanctions following a decision of the Federal Court of Appeal which judged immutable intelligent contracts cannot be sanctioned as property.
The Storm co-development, Alexey Pertsev, was sentenced to more than five years in prison by a Dutch court last year, but was released under electronic surveillance in February pending a call.
The DoJ, the storm and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comments at the time of the press.
