Roman Storm, a developer behind the Tornado Cash privacy protocol, inquired of the open source software community about their apprehensions regarding potential retroactive prosecution by the US Department of Justice for creating decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.
Storm queried DeFi developers: “What certainty do you have that you won’t face charges from the DOJ as a money service business for developing a non-custodial protocol?”
The DOJ might argue that any decentralized, non-custodial service should have been designed as a custodial one, as evidenced in Storm’s case, he noted, referencing his recent motion for acquittal, which was submitted on September 30.
“Our company cannot influence any changes or actions regarding the Tornado Cash protocol — it is a decentralized software protocol that no single entity can control,” Storm is cited as stating in the acquittal documents.
Storm was found guilty in August on one of three charges; the jury convicted him of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, establishing a troubling legal precedent for open source developers and sending ripples through the crypto community.
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The fight for privacy continues
Following the verdict, legal experts deliberated on whether US prosecutors might pursue the money laundering and sanctions charges against Storm in a subsequent trial.
The jury was deadlocked during discussions, unable to reach a unanimous agreement on those counts, resulting in Storm being convicted solely on the unlicensed money transmitter charge.
“If the Trump administration aims for the USA to be the crypto capital of the world, then the DOJ must refrain from retrying the two deadlocked charges,” Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at venture capital firm Variant Fund, stated on X at the time.
Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s criminal division, indicated in August that the DOJ would not initiate a retrial of Storm and would not take action in similar cases.
“Our perspective is that simply writing code, without malicious intent, is not a crime,” Galeotti stated at the American Innovation Project Summit, an event focused on regulatory advocacy and pro-crypto legislation in the US.
“The department will not use indictments as a means of law-making. The department should not leave innovators uncertain about what could trigger criminal charges,” he continued.
Magazine: Can privacy survive in US crypto policy after Roman Storm’s conviction?
