Washington, DC —
America on Wednesday charged Roman Semenov and Roman Storm, the two founders of cryptocurrency platform Tornado Cash, with being involved in the banned company and working for a hacking group linked to the North Korean government.
The criminal charges against Semenov and Storm, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and sanctions violations, come one year after the US Treasury Department banned Tornado Cash for allegedly supporting North Korea.
Waymaker Law, the firm that represents Semenov, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI doesn’t do that either.
Storm, who became an American citizen after naturalization, lives in Washington state. He was arrested Wednesday in connection with the charges.
Storm’s attorney, Brian Klein, said in a statement, “We are deeply disappointed that prosecutors chose to indict Mr. Storm because he helped build software, and they did so under a new legal theory that has harmful implications for all software developers. Storm has since last year cooperated with the prosecutor’s investigation and denied that he was involved in any criminal activity.”
The Ministry of Finance, Wednesday, imposed sanctions on Semenov, a Russian citizen. He is not in the custody of American law enforcement, said a statement by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. (ka/lt)
