Roman Storm, co-founder of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, has filed a motion in a Manhattan district court requesting the dismissal of criminal charges against him. This follows a recent ruling by the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court, which found that the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash’s smart contracts.
Storm argues that the court’s opinion renders the charges against him legally flawed, especially regarding the violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The appeals court determined that Tornado Cash’s smart contracts cannot be “blocked” under U.S. law since they are not property owned by foreign nationals or entities.
The charges include conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and money laundering, which Storm insists should also be dropped. He contends that the Tornado Cash protocol became immutable in 2020, long before the alleged conspiracy began.