The people who made Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing tool, are named Roman Storm and Roman Semenov. They will go to court because the United States said they did bad things with their platform. The court didn’t accept their request to dismiss the charges, so now they have to face a trial.
This happened one year after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said they were accusing Storm and Semenov of crimes.
The US government believes that Storm and Semenov are two of the three people who made and promoted Tornado Cash. This platform has been used to hide over $1 billion, and many bad people use it.
Even famous bad groups like the Lazarus Group have used Tornado Cash.
Tornado Cash is a tool that mixes different digital money to hide where the money comes from. This is why bad people like to use it—they don’t want anyone to follow their money trail.
Roman Storm, one of the creators, said that the charges against him were wrong. He said that making the platform was like free speech and should be protected by the First Amendment.
But on September 26, Judge Katherin Polk Failla from New York said no to Storm’s request. The judge said that making a code is not like free speech as described in the First Amendment. She said these issues should be talked about in a full trial.
The Case Against Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash is accused of helping bad people do bad things. Many scammers used it to hide their stolen money, making it very hard to get the money back.
For example, a scammer from India who stole $230 million used Tornado Cash to hide the money. The bad group Lazarus also uses it a lot.
Because of these bad actions, the creators are now facing charges.
What to Know
- Roman Storm’s trial will start on December 2 in New York. Both Storm and Semenov are accused of trying to launder money, running an illegal money business, and breaking economic rules.
- Roman Semenov cannot be found; no one knows where he is right now.