Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, has requested a U.S. federal judge to dismiss his sole conviction for unlicensed money transmission and the jury’s hung counts regarding money laundering and sanctions violations, asserting that prosecutors did not demonstrate his intent to assist malicious users of the crypto mixer.
In legal documents submitted on Sept. 30 and reviewed by Cointelegraph, Storm’s defense contended that prosecutors failed to establish that he meant to aid wrongdoers in utilizing Tornado Cash. This, the defense claims, invalidates the basis for his conviction based on negligent inaction.
“The accusation linking Storm to bad actors is based on the assumption that he was aware of their use of Tornado Cash and neglected to take adequate measures to prevent it. This is a theory of negligence,” the preliminary statement asserts.
The defense further contends that “in the absence of affirmative evidence proving that Mr. Storm acted with intent to assist bad actors,” the government’s attempt to meet its burden of willfulness by claiming the defendant failed to avert misuse is fundamentally flawed. “This allegation contradicts the standard for willfulness and is not substantiated by legal precedent,” the motion states.
This filing is part ofa motion for acquittal, which urges the judge to dismiss charges or a verdict on the grounds that the prosecution’s evidence, even if true, is not legally sufficient.
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Fighting for the right to privacy
Tornado Cash is a decentralized, non-custodial smart contract-based Ether (ETH) mixer using zero-knowledge proof-based encryption for enhanced transaction privacy. Launched by Roman Storm and Roman Semenov in 2019, it allows users to obscure the onchain traceability of their ETH.
The service faced legal issues primarily because it was reportedly used to launder billions of dollars in illicit funds, including amounts linked to North Korean hackers. Tornado Cash was accused of facilitating money laundering, with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) asserting it processed over $7 billion in digital currency since 2019, with 30% allegedly tied to illegal activities.
Storm was arrested in late August 2023, while co-founder Semenov was placed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals list. The arrest, conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division in Washington, D.C., was met with opposition from a U.S. Department of Justice official regarding Storm’s retrial.
The case has attracted significant criticism from the crypto community. In August, the pro-crypto U.S. lobby group Blockchain Association stated that Storm’s conviction could create a “dangerous” precedent for developers and privacy. The group emphasized that Storm had no control over the crypto transactions processed through the protocol.
“Roman Storm built privacy tech that functioned without his custody/control over the funds of Tornado Cash users. […] Tornado Cash operated as non-custodial software, ensuring that users retained total control of their assets at all times.”
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Crypto community at the forefront of the fight for privacy
Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto community emerged from a pro-cryptography movement known as the cypherpunks. While many in the crypto space now focus primarily on the financial aspects of blockchain technology, the battle for privacy remains critical.
Last week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the European Union’s proposed “Chat Control” legislation, warning it poses a threat to privacy in digital communication. The law would require messaging platforms to implement client-side pre-encryption scanning of content for illegal material.
“You cannot create a secure society by compromising individual security,” Buterin argued, also noting that backdoors designed for law enforcement are “inevitably hackable,” jeopardizing everyone’s safety.
Some experts interpret this as a regulatory misstep that could drive users toward ungovernable web3 alternatives. Hans Rempel, co-founder and CEO of Diode, recently told Cointelegraph that the law represents a dangerous overreach, stating, “granting an inherently corruptible entity nearly unlimited visibility into individuals’ private lives contradicts the values of digital privacy.”
Magazine: Can privacy survive in U.S. crypto policy after Roman Storm’s conviction?
