A year after the Department of Treasury added Tornado Cash to the OFAC sanctions list, the DOJ has come in to charge the service’s two founders with conspiracy charges involving money laundering, sanctions violations, and operating an unlicensed money transmitter. The Feds arrested Roman Storm, a U.S. national; Russian co-founder Roman Semenov is “at large”.
The Feds claim that the two founders knew Tornado Cash was widely being used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars by North Korea, but “turned a blind eye” and claimed to be complaint with sanctions laws. They also state that they refused to implement anti-money laundering and KYC programs, as is required of money transmitting services.
These charges are likely to be controversial — as has been the sanctioning of Tornado Cash — among crypto advocates and others, as they run up against thorny First Amendment questions and conflicting ideas about who, if anyone, is liable for running decentralized services.
