Tornado Cash Co-founder Roman Storm Released on Bail

• Alexey Pertsev, another Tornado Cash developer, was detained by Dutch police a year ago.
• Brian Klein, Storm’s attorney, announced his client’s release from jail on Twitter.

According to his attorney, Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, was freed on bond shortly after his detention by the U.S DOJ on August 23 on money-laundering and other charges. On August 24, Brian Klein, Storm’s attorney, announced his client’s release from jail on Twitter.

According to Klein, he is “very disappointed” that the developer was penalized just for his involvement in the software development process. The U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Storm’s arrest and accusations against him and Roman Semenov, the other co-founder of Tornado Cash, on August 23; bail was granted the following day.

Money Laundering Charges

Moreover, the United States authority has accused the creators of Tornado Cash of being involved in the laundering of over a billion dollars’ worth of “criminal proceeds.” Additional charges include conspiracy to violate sanctions and conduct money transmission activities without a proper license.

This newest development follows the addition of Tornado Cash-related addresses on the OFAC list of Specially Designated Nationals by the United States Treasury Department around a year ago. Thereafter, Alexey Pertsev, another Tornado Cash developer, was detained by Dutch police. After spending over nine months behind bars, the programmer was finally freed from prison in April 2023.

To the tune of $2 billion in stolen cryptocurrency in 2022, digital asset research company Chainalysis said in early 2023 that it had traced the thefts back to cybercrime organizations in North Korea. According to the report, these groups use Tornado Cash almost exclusively to launder their illicit proceeds.

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