Tornado Cash developer gets help from blockchain advocacy group in court

Three blockchain advocacy groups filed an amicus brief on May 4, 2022 in support of Tornado Cash developer vRoman Storm in the criminal charges he faces in the United States defense. The submission argued that Tornado Cash is popular among the cryptocurrency community and plays an important role in protecting user privacy. Additionally, the submission states that the characteristics of blockchain technology mean that these projects develop

The submissions support Storm's motion to dismiss the charges against him and advance several arguments to ensure the developer is not protected from such legal action.

The Blockchain Association said the government’s case had “critical flaws” that, if adopted, could have an “adverse impact” on the crypto industry.

Marisa Tashman Coppel, the organization’s legal director, claims the government’s treatment of Tornado Cash as an unlicensed money transmitter is baseless. Pursuant to Title 18 U.S.C. Section 1960 and FinCEN regulations, money transmitters must have fully independent control over user assets.

“One cannot be a money transmitter without the ability to move money independently on behalf of the user,” she said.

Tornado Cash and its developers do not control the funds as the protocol is self-executing and immutable. Instead users retain control of their assets, which are held in mining pools managed by non-custodial smart contracts.

CoinCenter Get Involved

Peter Van, Head of Research at CoinCenter Valkenburg said the U.S. government "wrongly charged the developers of Tornado Cash with criminal conspiracy."

Like the Blockchain Association, Valkenburg and CoinCenter have minimized the role of developers in Tornado Cash operations by referencing the platform’s smart contract-based mining pool.

Valkenburg also explained that Tornado Cash’s software tools and UI interface were not required, meaning that even though the platform was used for these purposes, the defendants did not execute transactions, mix assets, receive funds, or provide secret notes.

He compared Tornado Cash to TurboTax, which provides users with a useful way to file their taxes but does not file and pay taxes on their behalf.

CoinCenter also made legal arguments in support of treating software distribution as free speech and in favor of statutory exemptions for information transactions. It compared Tornado Cash to SWIFT, claiming that both platforms should be immune from direct sanctions because they each only process information.

DeFi Education Fund

The DeFi Education Fund believes that developers should not be held liable when third parties use their software to commit criminal activities.

Amanda Tuminelli, the group's chief legal officer, explained that one specific statute, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), has never been used in a similar manner by the U.S. government.

In more than 100 other cases recently investigated by the DeFi Education Fund, the government accused defendants of interacting with sanctioned counterparties. However, the developers of platforms like Tornado Cash do not have any such counterparties.

Motion to Dismiss

Storm and her attorneys initially filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges on March 29, showing amicus briefs from various groups advocating explicitly in support of the motion.

It's unclear whether the motion to dismiss will succeed, as the case is still in its early stages. The U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against Roman Storm in August 2023. He will be on bail, waiting for trial until September.

The U.S. Treasury Department and OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, claiming that the platform laundered more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency since 2019. It linked some of the activity to the North Korean government-backed Lazarus Group.

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