Tornado Cash co-founder refused to plead guilty

Tornado Cash co-founder Tornado Cash Roman Shtorm did not plead guilty to any of the charges of money laundering and sanctions violations. This was reported by Inner City Press.

Shtorm was arrested on August 23 in Washington state; the other defendant — Roman Semenov — faces charges filed in absentia. Later, the detained cofounder of Tornado Cash was released on bail.

“We agreed on bail of $2 million, secured by a house in Washington, with one surety by September 15. We also confiscated his Russian passport,” the prosecutor said.

Earlier, the lawyer told Bloomberg that Shtorm has cooperated with authorities in the 2022 investigation and denies any wrongdoing. Bloomberg.

In August 2022, OFAC added to the sanctions list Tornado Cash, through which, according to the agency, criminals laundered more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency. More than $455 million of them are linked to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.

On August 12, Dutch authorities arrested developer Aleksei Percev on suspicion of involvement in money laundering and concealment of illicit financial flows. He denied all charges against him.

In April 2023, the court changed the measure of restraint for Percev to house arrest.