The US Department of Justice charged Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, co-founders of Tornado Cash, with helping hackers launder more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds via their crypto mixer. The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanction to Roman Semenov, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service have arrested Roman Storm.
In a newly released indictment, the duo was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The DOJ said that Tornado Cash "facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering transactions and laundered hundreds of millions of dollars for the Lazarus Group, the sanctioned North Korean cybercrime organization".
US Attorney Damian Williams said, "While publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew that they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes. Today's indictment is a reminder that money laundering through cryptocurrency transactions violates the law, and those who engage in such laundering will face prosecution."
Alexey Pertsev, another co-founder of Tornado Cash, was arrested in the Netherlands in August 2022.
Related: Group Backed by Coinbase Loses Lawsuit Against US Treasury's Tornado Cash Sanction
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