NY Judge Denies Tornado Cash Developer’s Motion to Dismiss, Trial Set for December

September 27, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Roman Storm, a software developer of Tornado Cash, is headed to trial after a New York judge ruled against his motion to dismiss criminal charges. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla rejected Storm’s request to drop charges tied to money laundering and sanctions violations. Russian co-defendant Roman Semenov remains elusive and on the run, evading capture […]

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Tornado Cash’s Roman Storm case moves to trial as judge denies dismissal

September 26, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm is eyeing a maximum of 45 years in prison if convicted of all charges, with a trial set for December.

Roman Storm, a developer and co-founder of Tornado Cash, will face criminal trial over his creation of the crypto-mixing platform after a judge denied his motion to dismiss a United States government case.

In a Sept. 26 telephone conference, New York district court judge Katherine Polk Failla denied Storm’s bid to toss three federal charges brought by the Justice Department, saying government prosecutors had lodged plausible allegations against him.

Storm and fellow co-founder Roman Semenov were charged last August with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

Tornado Cash sanctions effective, reveal Ethereum weakness: NY Fed

August 7, 2024 Coin Telegraph

blockchain censorship

Cooperation with the US Treasury sanctions on Tornado Cash was strongest at the user level and weaker further along the settlement chain.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released a report on the effect of sanctions on Tornado Cash, the crypto mixer that was blocklisted by the United States Treasury Department in 2022. Sanctions work, by and large, even in decentralized finance, the report concluded.

The report’s findings also apply to Ethereum. The Ethereum network’s resistance to censorship and cooperation shows “fragility,” the report says.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned addresses associated with the so-called crypto mixer Tornado Cash on Aug. 8, 2022. The move was a response to large-scale money laundering operations it had enabled by obscuring the movement of crypto funds onchain. It was the first time a computer protocol had been sanctioned.

‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev denied bail while awaiting appeal

July 14, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Pertsev will now spend the next year in prison while his lawyers prepare an appeal for money laundering charges.

Alexey Pertsev, the developer behind the OFAC-sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash has been denied bail while his lawyers prepare to submit an appeal for charges of money laundering.

Pertsev’s defense lawyer, Keith Cheng, told DL News the rejection of Pertsev’s bail request came as a surprise, noting that an additional request for Pertsev to gain access to a computer to prepare for his appeal was also denied.

The court said Pertsev's continued detention would not obstruct his ability to prepare his defense, adding that Pertsev's request for computer access went against its safety protocol.

‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

Tornado Cash developer guilty of money laundering

May 14, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Alexey Pertsev

Pertsev has been under arrest in the Netherlands since August 2022 after the United States government blacklisted Tornado Cash.

Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the cryptocurrency mixing protocol Tornado Cash, has been found guilty of money laundering, raising potentially severe implications for open-source code developers.

Pertsev was found guilty of money laundering by Dutch judges at the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal on May 14. The developer was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for allegedly laundering $1.2 billion worth of illicit assets on the platform.

The sentencing came despite Tornado Cash being a noncustodial crypto mixing protocol — meaning that the funds that go through the protocol are never held or controlled by it.

‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

Railgun denies being used by North Korea as it nears $1B total volume

April 17, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Railgun denies being used by North Korea as it nears B total volume

Coin Telegraph

Privacy protocol Railgun, which security analysts have labeled a “prime alternative” to Tornado Cash, denied U.S.-sanctioned entities are using it.

Crypto privacy protocol Railgun has denied being used by North Korea and other United States-sanctioned entities to launder cryptocurrency, arguing its zero knowledge-based tech prevents this and the accusations have “no evidence.”

It comes as the Railgun platform’s total volume nears the $1 billion mark, boosted by a recent X post from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin praising and defending the privacy protocol.

Railgun, founded in January 2021, uses zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography to shield wallet balances, transaction history and transaction details allowing users to use decentralized apps (DApps) on Ethereum or other supported chains while remaining private.

‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

Dutch Prosecutors Reportedly Charge Tornado Cash Developer With Money Laundering

March 21, 2024 Bitcoin.com

bitcoin.com

Alexey Pertsev, a developer for Tornado Cash, has reportedly been indicted by prosecutors in the Netherlands. They accuse him of laundering $1.2 billion. Pertsev’s attorney confirmed the prosecutors’ intent to charge his client. According to Dutch prosecutors, while a crypto-mixing service is not “inherently illegal,” using it to launder criminal assets is punishable. Dutch Prosecutors […]

‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

North Korean Hackers Stole Over $600,000,000 Worth of Crypto in 2023, According to Blockchain Analytics Firm

January 6, 2024 The Daily Hodl

North Korean Hackers Stole Over 0,000,000 Worth of Crypto in 2023, According to Blockchain Analytics Firm

BTC

New data from blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reveals that North Korean hackers stole over half a billion dollars worth of digital assets in 2023. According to a new study by the crypto analytics platform, hackers associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) looted $600 million worth of crypto assets last year. […]

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‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

Bloomberg Analyst Says SEC Lining Up To Potentially Approve All Spot Bitcoin ETF Applications in January

November 30, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin

A Bloomberg analyst says that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is gearing up to approve all bids for a spot market Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF). In a lengthy thread on the social media platform X, James Seyffart says that the SEC making earlier-than-expected rulings on Franklin’s bids for a BTC ETF means […]

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‘$600M Would Buy a Lot of Bitcoin’: Microstrategy Boss Steers Bezos Wedding Drama Toward Crypto

U.S. Government Enacts Sanctions on Crypto Mixer Sinbad Under Allegations of Aiding North Korean Money Laundering

November 29, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin

The U.S. government is sanctioning another crypto mixing protocol, accusing it of aiding North Korea in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stolen digital assets. In a new press release, the U.S. Department of the Treasury says that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning the crypto tumbler Sinbad for allegedly […]

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