GoFundMe Ends Tornado Cash Legal Defense Fund

The GoFundMe campaign aimed at raising legal fees for Tornado Cash was halted due to potential violation of GoFundMe’s terms.

A fundraising campaign that was intended to collect legal fees for Roman Storm the co-founder of the controversial cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, and Alexey Pertsev the creator of Tornado Cash was canceled by the American crowdsourcing platform GoFundMe before it could be completed.

On January 22, Storm published a video in which it requested that members of the community contribute to the funding of its legal bills for its ongoing legal battle against the authorities of the United States of America for allegedly assisting the circumvention of US sanctions.

Although the Tornado Cash duo had begun to receive financial assistance from their followers, GoFundMe stopped fundraising on February 14th citing a violation of their rules of service especially “Term 22.”

It gives the impression that the Tornado Cash fundraiser intended to collect legal fees, may “expose GoFundMe, its employees or users to any harm or liability of any kind.”

As a result of the cancellation of the GoFundMe fundraising, several donors including Ryan Adams of Bankless Ventures had their contributions returned to them.

“Good thing we have an uncensorable money system so we can still fund civil liberties like the right to a fair trial.”

He stated that he is committed to returning the $10,000 that he had initially contributed to Storm by using bitcoins. We have received confirmation from GoFundMe that the funds will be deposited into the donors’ bank accounts within three to seven business days.

Donations totaling $30,000 had been gathered through Tornado Cash’s GoFundMe campaign while it was still online. The goal of Storm and Pertsev is to amass $1.5 million to cover the costs of their legal representation in the United States.

At the moment, the two individuals are dependent on the cryptocurrency fundraising platform known as JuiceBox, which has accumulated 316.75 Ether.

On the other hand, the Tornado Cash community is skeptical of the intention of GoFundMe to discontinue the fundraising projects, given that the platform has previously let campaigns of a similar nature be carried out.

A conspiracy to commit money laundering and a conspiracy to operate an unregistered money-transmitting firm are the charges that have been brought against Storm and Semenov.

They continue to maintain a position of not guilty on all accusations that are associated with money laundering and violations of sanctions imposed by the United States.

After being released from jail on a bond of 2 million dollars, Storm is prohibited from traveling outside of specific zones in New York, New Jersey, Washington and California.