Tornado Cash Devs Are Caught in a U.S. Dragnet

I’m not going to call Roman Storm or Roman Semenov innocent for their work building the now-sanctioned Tornado Cash protocol. I’m not even going to say the two aren’t guilty of the three specific crimes of which they were accused. But I am willing to say the two are caught up in something much bigger than themselves and are likely victims as much as perpetrators.

Yesterday two explosive stories hit the wires about supposed crypto crimes that taken together show a fuller picture of the U.S. government’s interest in Tornado Cash. In addition to the Romans getting charged, the FBI also issued a warning that North Korea is preparing to cash out millions in stolen crypto.

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If the connection isn’t immediately obvious, it helps to know that in its indictment the Department of Justice made pains to note that the hermit kingdom’s infamous Lazarus Group accounted for “hundreds of millions” of dollars of the $1 billion in illicit funds the Romans allegedly helped launder by building Tornado Cash.

In other words, the legal action taken against Tornado Cash is bound up in a geopolitical conflict between the U.S. and North Korea. In other other words, both the smart contract itself and the Romans are caught up in a massive U.S. dragnet.

So far unable to actually persecute North Korea itself or bring to justice any suspected hackers – who are thought to be funding the wayward country’s nuclear missiles program, no less – the U.S. government is making an example out of a couple cryptocurrency coders.

The actual crimes almost don’t matter. Instead the prosecution of Storm, Semenov and their colleague Alexey Pertsev who faces trial in the Netherlands is supposed to stand for the international community of Good Guy nations going hard against an international pariah. Considering the countless resources that flow to law enforcement in the U.S., the technology and spycraft available, you have to wonder: is this the best they can do?

This is more lit crit than evidence, but consider the DOJ presser’s dek, that bit under the headline that’s supposed to sum up the story and highlight why it matters: “Concurrent…