In short
- Storm was convicted on Wednesday for conspiracy to exploit money channel without a permit, but the jury that was considered money laundering and the charges of sanctions
- Legal aid group warns that Storm is confronted with “potential decades” as public prosecutors try the two unsolved counts again.
- The founders of Samourai Wallet argue this week guilty of similar charges and emphasized the government’s action against privacy tools.
The Ethereum Foundation announced on Thursday that it will correspond to another $ 500,000 in donations for the legal defense of Roman Storm, only a few days after the co-founder of Tornado Cash was convicted for one of the three federal charges that could criminalize the development of codes according to experts.
“Privacy is normal and writing code is not a crime”, Wei Wang, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, tweeted.
The matching promise comes as a jury in Manhattan on Wednesday Found guilty From conspiracy to exploit a money provider without a permit, but continued to get stuck on individual conspiracy costs for money laundering and punishing evasion after four days of deliberation.
The Free Pertev & Storm Legal Aid Organization tweeted The urgency of continuous financing, saying that Storm “risks up to 5 years in prison if he does not win the profession, and possibly decades if the government decides to try counts 1 and 3.” ”
The group noted that the outcome “will be a great precedent for developers worldwide.”
Storm’s legal problems arise from his role in the development of Tornado money, a mint mixer This enables users to hide crypto transactions by pooling funds with others.
The US Department of Finance the protocol punished In August 2022 it was claiming that $ 7 billion had been washed through it since 2019, including frequent use by the Lazarus Group -Hackers in Noord -Korea.
Federal Public Prosecutors portrayed Storm as someone who benefited for “Hide dirty money for criminals,” while his defense said that Tornado Cash was designed as a privacy tool for ordinary users, not specifically for illegal activities.
Hashkey Group Chief analyst Jeffrey Ding told Decrypt that the judgment “the unprecedented legal territory for open-source privacy software” underlines and “a disturbing precedent” represents where the authorities “are prepared to test the limits of applying financial crime statutes to code developers.”
Crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky called The judgment “A sad day for Defi” on Thursday, adding that “Section 1960 should not apply to the developer of a non-guardianship protocol that is missing control over user funds.”
He urged the case to appeal, hoping: “The second circuit will correct this (and many other) mistakes.”
In July, Storm made one urgent plea For an extra $ 1.5 million, explained that the legal costs “were quickly stacked together” while his team “the clock around” worked during the three -week test.
This week, the founders of Bitcoin Mixer Samourai wallet – William Lonergan Hill and Kerne Rodriguez –pleading guilty conspiracy to exploit a money without a permit, confronted with a maximum of five years in prison.
Justice officers claim that the wallet had been washed more than $ 100 million and called it a “refuge for large -scale money washing and punishing evasion”.
Their conviction is planned for November 6.
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