Roman Semenov and Roman Storm, co-founders of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, have been charged with money laundering and operating an unauthorized money-transfer business. The US Treasury added Semenov to its list of specially designated nationals on Aug. 23. The FBI and the IRS detained Storm on Aug. 24.The charges stem from the alleged laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stolen crypto on behalf of the Lazarus Group, which is connected to the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un. Semenov and Storm were also accused of advertising the Tornado Cash tool, profiting from a governance token, and designing aspects of it.A judge sided with the US Treasury on Aug. 18 in the Tornado Cash lawsuit, which argued that OFAC had gone beyond its authority and jurisdiction when it banned the crypto mixer. OFAC had previously sanctioned Tornado Cash because it said that hackers had been able to launder as much as $7 billion worth of stolen crypto assets through it.Coin Center, a crypto advocacy organization, issued a statement regarding the issue. The Center’s Director of Research, Peter Van Valkenburgh, pointed out that the indictment lacked sufficient details to prove clear violations of the law. He claimed Semenov and Storm are accused of “transferring funds on behalf of the public” without registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Van Valkenburgh argued that the two appear to fall under the category of anonymizing software providers, as outlined by FinCEN, rather than money transmitters.

Information	Details
Geography	North America
Countries	🇺🇸 🇳🇱
Sentiment	neutral
Relevance Score	8
People	Roman Semenov, Roman Storm, Alexey Pertsev, Wally Adeyemo, Peter Van Valkenburgh
Companies	OFAC, FBI, IRS, Lazarus Group, FinCEN, Coin Center, Binance Futures, PrimeXBT
Currencies	Ethereum, Bitcoin, USD, EUR, North Korean Won
Securities	None