- Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm has been granted bail one day after indictment.
- US authorities accuse Tornado Cash founders of money laundering for creating the platform.
- Specifically, Tornado Cash was claimed to provide cybercriminals a means to anonymize crypto transactions
Roman Storm, co-founder of cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, has been granted release on bail, as disclosed by his attorney, Brian Klein.
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This update comes just one day following the indictment of Storm and his fellow co-founder, Roman Semenov. The charges brought against them include conspiracy to launder money and violations of sanctions laws. These charges pertain to their involvement in an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
Notably, US authorities assert that Tornado Cash’s mixer has facilitated the laundering of over $1 billion in digital currencies. The unsealed indictment, revealed on Wednesday, highlights that a significant portion of these funds has purportedly flowed into the coffers of the Lazarus Group, a hacking collective with ties to North Korea.
The allegations center on Storm and Semenov, who are accused of designing Tornado Cash to provide cybercriminals a means to anonymize crypto transactions. While Storm, aged 34, was apprehended in Washington state, his co-founder Semenov, a 35-year-old Russian national, currently remains at large.
Klein, Storm’s legal representative, expressed his contentment with the release of his client but voiced his disappointment at the charges laid against Storm for his involvement in software development. Klein cautioned that such actions by prosecutors could potentially cast a shadow over the broader software developer community, carrying “dangerous implications.”
It’s worth noting that Storm has been actively cooperating with the ongoing government investigation and vehemently denies any engagement in criminal activities, as emphasized in a separate statement by his attorney.
The Lazarus Group was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2019, and more recently, Tornado Cash faced sanctions in 2022. In a significant move, the Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on Semenov, accusing him of providing “material support” to both entities.
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