By EZ in News — Sep 27, 2024

Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm to Face Criminal Trial, Judge Rules

US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla delivered an hourlong oral opinion stating that Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm must face charges of money laundering, operating unlicensed money transmitting business, and sanction violations, rejecting his defense that he was prosecuted for writing code.

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The judge denied Storm's motion to dismiss the charges, finding the Department of Justice's allegations credible. She noted that Tornado Cash operates similarly to other financial institutions and is not simply a charitable project due to its venture capital funding, the relayer feature, and the use of TORN tokens as evidence.

"The Court finds that the government has a substantial interest in promoting a secure financial system by combating money laundering, by combating the operation of unregistered money transmitting services and by combating the evasion of sanctions. These interests are wholly unrelated to the suppression of free expression, and the applicability of these laws to destroy conduct does not burden substantially more speech than necessary," the judge said.

Judge Failla also said that control is not needed to violate Section 1960, which bans the operation of unlicensed money transmitters. Tornado Cash is not significantly different from other crypto mixing services already recognized as money transmitters in case law, she added.
She also dismissed Storm's defense that his actions couldn't violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because software is exempt. She stressed that the laws target financial crimes, not coding. Publishing software alone isn't enough for an overbreadth challenge. Code used to direct a computer's functions isn't protected speech, and Storm's software allegedly facilitated money laundering and sanctions evasion.

"Mr. Storm is not being charged with exporting Tornado Cash software, but with laundering funds using the Tornado Cash service, which definitionally extends beyond the software," said Judge Failla.

"At this stage in the case, this court cannot simply accept Mr. Storm's narrative that he is being prosecuted merely for writing code. If the jury ultimately accepts this narrative, then it will acquit. But there's no basis for me to decide that as a matter of law," she added.
Roman Storm is now set to stand trial in December. If convicted of all three charges, he's facing up to 45 years in prison.