The dismissal came days before Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm was scheduled to face charges in US federal court. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has dismissed an appeal filed by crypto advocacy organization Coin Center against the US Treasury Department over its Office of Foreign Assets Control’s 2022 sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixing service. In a Thursday filing, the appellate court granted a motion to vacate a lower court ruling and remand with instructions to dismiss as part of a joint filing with Coin Center and the US Treasury. The dismissal, according to the court, would essentially conclude Coin Center’s legal challenge against the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). In 2022, OFAC added multiple wallet addresses connected to Tornado Cash to its list of sanctioned entities. Coin Center filed a lawsuit alleging that the Treasury Department “exceeded [its] statutory authority” in the sanctions, though there were other lawsuits filed by interested parties, incl...
Roman Storm is scheduled to appear in a New York courtroom for his criminal trial on July 14, facing money laundering and conspiracy charges. Roman Storm, one of the co-founders and developers behind the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, appeared in a video interview as his US criminal trial is expected to begin in less than two weeks. In an interview released Wednesday by Crypto In America, Storm said his legal team intended to address at trial the allegations that he had personally profited from illicit funds through his role at Tornado Cash. However, he declined to say whether he would testify in his own defense over charges of money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter, and conspiracy to violate US sanctions. Read more
Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's defense cited the same set of FinCEN documents used by the Samourai Wallet developers' legal team. Attorneys for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm filed a motion asking the court to reconsider the motion to dismiss the case due to the prosecution withholding exculpatory evidence in the form of communications with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dating back to 2023. According to a May 16 letter from Storm's attorneys to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, the FinCEN documents show that non-custodial crypto mixers do not fall under the legal definition of a "money transmitting business" and that prosecutors have known this since at least 2023. Despite having knowledge of the FinCEN guidance on crypto mixers, state prosecutors still proceeded with cases against the Samourai Wallet developers and Tornado Cash, the attorneys alleged. Read more
US government charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm were slightly pared back after a memo said the Justice Department would end most crypto cases. US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month. Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge. “After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,” Clayton wrote. Read more
Tornado Cash is designed to make transactions private, but allegations of money laundering led to US sanctions, though they were lifted in March 2025. Tornado Cash is a decentralized, non-custodial crypto mixer designed to enhance transaction privacy on public blockchains. It uses smart contracts and zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to conceal the onchain link between the sender and receiver of a transaction. Launched by Roman Storm and Roman Semenov on Ethereum in 2019, Tornado Cash allows users to send and receive cryptocurrency anonymously, without exposing their wallet history. Unlike centralized mixers, Tornado Cash operates entirely onchain through immutable smart contracts, meaning no central party controls the funds. Read more