Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm released on bail, lawyer says
Roman Storm, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash who was arrested on money-laundering and different fees on Aug. 23, was released on bail quickly after he was detained by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), his lawyer stated.
Storm’s lawyer, Brian Klein, took to X (previously Twitter) on Aug. 24 to announce that Storm had been released on bail.
Klein famous that he nonetheless stays “very disappointed” about the truth that the prosecutors charged the developer simply because he helped to develop software program. He added:
“Their novel legal theory has dangerous implications for all software developers.”
The bail got here the following day after the U.S. DOJ introduced the arrest of Storm alongside the charges against Tornado Cash founders Storm and Roman Semenov on Aug. 23.
The U.S. authority particularly charged the builders with working the Tornado Cash providers and allegedly laundering greater than $1 billion in “criminal proceeds.” Additional fees are associated to “conspiracy to commit sanctions violations” and “conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
Storm’s lawyer, Klein, didn’t instantly reply to Cointelegraph’s request for remark.
Related: Tornado Cash lawsuit judge sides with US Treasury in motions for summary judgement
The newest information comes roughly a yr after the U.S. Treasury Department added Tornado Cash-related addresses to the list of Specially Designated Nationals of the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). Subsequently, authorities within the Netherlands arrested one other Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev. The developer was released from jail in April 2023 after spending almost 9 months in jail.
Pertsev and Storm will not be the one prosecuted builders associated to Tornado Cash, although. Another co-founder, Roman Semenov, was added within the OFAC’s checklist of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons on Aug. 23 as properly. The developer nonetheless has not been arrested.
