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Roman Storm, developer of Tornado Cash, has filed a motion to dismiss the criminal indictment case against him.
A filing made on Friday night in the Southern District of New York states that Storm is a developer and that he and his US-based company agreed to build software solutions to provide financial privacy to legitimate cryptocurrency users, which is not a crime.
What Are The Charges Against Storm
Storm was arrested last year for his involvement with Tornado Cash, which has been used for money laundering. However, Storm’s legal team argues that he only published code that anyone can use and that building Tornado Cash is not the same as laundering money. The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Tornado Cash facilitated over $1 Billion in laundering by groups like North Korea’s Lazarus.
The motion filed defines Tornado Cash, which is described as a set of non-custodial smart contracts that give users complete ownership. Moreover, they have control over their assets, without relying on any service provider or intermediary.
Moreover, the motion disputes the notion that Tornado Cash is a mixer or a service and instead emphasizes that it is a protocol. The filing also disputes the idea that Storm could control Tornado Cash, saying that he could not prevent its use by Lazarus and similar entities.
Motion to Dismiss: Charges Are Irrelevant
According to the motion, Tornado Cash does not meet the definition of a financial institution because users have control over their funds and the protocol is free and open-source software that does not charge any fees.
The filing argues that Storm could not have conspired to launder funds or operate a money transmitter if there was no Tornado Cash enterprise for him to do it with. Furthermore, the motion also states that Storm and the other developers at Peppersec never agreed with alleged bad actors.
The filing noted that the DOJ was “conflating the agreement to develop and publish Tornado Cash code with a (non-existent) agreement to engage in purported concealment money laundering.” Moreover, the motion notes that the law in the Netherlands, where Pertsev was arrested and tried, is different from that in the U.S.
Similar Charges Like Alexey Pertsev
The charges against Storm are similar to those against Alexey Pertsev, another Tornado Cash developer, who was arrested in August 2022. He also went on trial last week on money laundering charges.
Storm’s legal team filed two other motions before the motion to dismiss was filed on Friday night. The first motion asks a judge to order the DOJ to share any communications between U.S. authorities and Dutch authorities.
Conclusion
A filing made on Friday night states that Storm and his U.S-based company agreed to build software solutions to provide financial privacy to legitimate cryptocurrency users. Per the filing, the U.S. DOJ is allegedly conflating the agreement to develop and publish Tornado Cash code with a non-existent agreement to engage in the purported concealment of money laundering. The law in the Netherlands, where Pertsev was arrested and tried, is different from that in the U.S.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions stated by the author, or any people named in this article, are for informational purposes only. They do not establish financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading in stocks, cryptos or related indexes comes with a risk of financial loss.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
