Tornado Cash Co-Founder Pleads Not Guilty to Charges

According to reports, Roman Storm, the co-founder of the controversial cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash who was detained in August, pleaded not guilty to all charges related to money laundering and violations of United States sanctions.

Storm pleaded not guilty before a magistrate in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to an X thread published by Inner City Press on September 6.

Along with his alleged accomplice, Roman Semenov, he has been charged with conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to violate sanctions, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

The charges centered on allegations that Tornado Cash helped the North Korean Lazarus Group circumvent U.S. sanctions, enabling the country’s regime to allegedly fund its nuclear program. Shortly after his detention, Storm was released on a $2 million bond and is prohibited from traveling outside of New York, New Jersey, Washington, and California.

In August 2022, Dutch authorities arrested Alexey Pertsev, co-founder of Tornado Cash, on similar allegations related to money laundering with the Lazarus Group.

In April 2023, he was released from prison to await the start of his trial at home while under electronic monitoring. As of the publication date, Semenov was still at large.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department added Tornado Cash to its list of Specially Designated Nationals sanctioned entities in August 2022, prompting criticism from many in and out of the crypto space as an overreach of the department’s authority.

Several individuals and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase filed a lawsuit against the move in September 2022, but a judge concurred with the U.S. Treasury in August 2023.

For many in the cryptocurrency industry, the allegations against the Tornado Cash co-founders are anything but black and white.

Since February 2022, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has publicly acknowledged using the mixer to send funds to those affected by the conflict in Ukraine.