Tornado Cash indictment fails to show ‘clear violation’ of certain laws: Coin Center

Crypto advocacy group Coin Center has criticized the latest indictment of two former Tornado Cash developers, arguing that the facts offered don’t show any clear violations of money-transmitting-related offenses.

Roman Storm and Romen Semenov were indicted by the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on Aug. 23 for conspiring to operate an

Coin Center first voiced its opposition toward the U.S. Treasury in October when it sued the agency for its unprecedented and unlawful sanctioning of Tornado Cash.

The OFAC indictment claims Storm and Semenov ran an unlicensed money transmission service by engaging in the business of transferring funds on behalf of the public. The enforcement agency claimed the developers should have registered with FinCEN.

Semenov was added to OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons on Aug. 23, while Storm was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington state on the same day.

Alexey Pertsev, another one of Tornado Cash’s founders, was imprisoned by Dutch authorities in Aug. 2022 before being released in late April.

Valkenburgh believes the outcome of the Tornado Cash saga will have a profound impact on the legal rights of United States citizens to build and publish software in the future.

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