In a recent announcement, theOffice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) from the US Treasury Department added the co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Semenovto its list of specially designated nationals.
OFAC headwind against Tornado Cash
This decision to place the co-founder of the flagship Ethereum mixer stems from allegations that Tornado Cash was used to launder funds from criminal activitiesincluding the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of virtual currency by hackers from the Lazarus group, the notorious web hackers who made yesterday still talking about them in our columns.
As a reminder, Tornado Cash is an open source software that anonymizes transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. However, it has been identified as being used to launder illegal funds.
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Censorship on Ethereum: a long story
Last year, OFAC had already designated Tornado Cash and associated wallets in an ecosystemaccusing North Korean group Lazarus of using the platform to launder more than $7 billion.
In this context, OFAC has specifically highlighted the role of the crypto mixer in laundering funds for criminal actors since its creation in 2019. The collaboration between OFAC and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has made it possible to coordinate these sanctions.
“This sanctions designation was conducted in coordination with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which released an indictment against Semenov and a second Tornado Cash co-founder, Roman Storm, who was arrested today. today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and theInternal Revenue. Department, Criminal Investigation. The DOJ charged Semenov and Storm with conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business, and conspiracy to commit sanctions violations. A third co-founder of Tornado Cash, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested on money laundering charges in the Netherlands in August 2022 by Dutch law enforcement authorities. »
OFAC Statement
American regulation and its various financial policemen therefore continue to fight for justice to be done on cryptocurrencies, not without showing a deleterious attitude. Note that this is not the first time that the regulator has attacked Tornado Cash, theone of its iconic developers is on his side in prison until February. The debate over Ethereum censorship is therefore resurfacing. Case to follow tomorrow on the Journal du Coin.
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