A legal fund defending arrested Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev has received $350,000 from the crypto community and public support from former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Privacy Is Not a Crime
Snowden’s support came with a follow up tweet, stating that “privacy is not a crime.” This statement is a response to Storm’s tweet that reads: “2024 is the year that will define the rest of my life. Honestly, I’m scared. But also hopeful that this community cares with a passion. Please donate towards my legal defense.”
If you can help, please help. Privacy is not a crime. https://t.co/R4vauNLRB4
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 23, 2024
Storm, and Roman Semenov (another Tornado Cash developer) are currently facing allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations in the U.S, while Pertsev is slapped with similar allegations in the Netherlands.
These allegations are related to Tornado Cash, a tumbler that mixes crypto assets with others, so as to obscure the trail back to the asset’s original source.
In August 2022, the mixing service was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for its role in laundering more than $7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, including $455 million stolen in 2022 by North Korean-linked hacking organization Lazarus Group.
Following the U.S. government’s sanction, Tornado Cash’s domain name was taken down, and GitHub removed its repository and suspended the creators’ accounts. Stablecoin issuer Circle also froze $75,000 in USD Coin from Ethereum addresses belonging to Tornado Cash.
Crypto Community Backs Tornado Cash Developers
Pertsev was arrested in Amsterdam on August 10, 2022, on suspicion of “involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering through the mixing of cryptocurrencies” through Tornado Cash. Pertsev remains in custody in the Netherlands. A year later, Storm was arrested in Washington State on allegations of assisting in money laundering worth $1 billion. Storm denied this allegation. While Semenov faces similar charges to his associates, he has not been arrested.
Since the arrest of these developers, they have continued to receive massive support from their followers and the crypto community who believe in privacy rights.
In late 2022, Pertsev’s loyal followers signed over 5,000 petitions requesting his release. The petition stated that the arrest of Pertsev “threatens to create a dangerous precedent, as developers could now be made responsible if software they created is misused.”
