In the USA, the prosecutor’s office completed the investigation part after eight -day witness statements in the case of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Storm’s team began to call defense witnesses, the role of Tornado Cash in the case and the responsibility of developers was the main agenda item.
Storm’s defense strategy and witnesses
Ethereum, where Storm’s lawyers call as the first defense witness 
$3,653.32 Core developer Preston Van Loon told the jury that he used Tornado Cash as a Ethereum -based privacy tool. Van Loon said that this protocol enables users to separate their identities from financial transactions, and that he preferred this vehicle to protect against personal security and cyber attacks.
“I used Tornado Cash for my operational security and personal safety,” I used my financial transactions from my identity. ” Crypto investors’ application – the reason will surprise you!
Defense claims that Tornado Cash’s purpose is to maintain the need for legitimate privacy, but that malicious people abuse this tool. Storm’s lawyer Keri Axel stressed that Tornado Cash can be used for various legal – and sometimes illegal – purposes such as a messaging application or a virtual private network. Witnesses of the defense are expected to respond to allegations about Storm with three days of statements.
The allegations of the prosecutor’s office and witness conflicts
According to the prosecutor’s office, Roman Semenov and Alexey Pertsev, who worked with Roman Storm, operated Tornado Cash and made a huge gain from the sale of crypto currencies obtained from this protocol. The prosecutor’s Office argues that Storm and his team know malicious users, and even allow North Korean computer pirates to launder money. He also claims that Storm cannot help when the victims who have been attacked ask for help, and that this does not reflect the truth.
In this context, a three -organized crime theory against Storm has been put forward: criminal unit for money laundering, criminal union for the purpose of wandering around sanctions and violating international sanctions. If Storm is found to be guilty, he can be sentenced to up to 45 years of imprisonment. Defense argued that Storm did not carry out a criminal organization activity, that he could not foresee how his software would be used and that he could be the most negligent.
Expert Witness and Evidence Discussion
In the case, the victims and the attacks of the attacks with the testimony of the Tornado Cash was told how money lost tracking. However, in the testimony of a victim named Hanfeng Lin, his money went to Tornado Cash, the crypto monitoring experts were later wrong. Nevertheless, the court judge perpetrators permitted the testimony of Stephan George, an internal revenue service (IRS), the prosecutor’s office.
Stephan George: ım I used the principle of LIFO in the follow -up of Lin’s funds, this method does not prove the ownership of wallets or funds. ”
In the cross -examination of the defense lawyer Axel, George admitted to the extent that the Torn tokens were different from ETH and that he did not have detailed information about the stock markets used. These issues led to question marks on how the material evidence of the crime and the technical details were committed before the court.
Subsequent stages in the case
The defense side plans to present a series of new witnesses to refute some elements of the indictment. On Friday, Omid Malekan from a specialist and Columbia Business School is expected to inform the court about the use of Tornado Cash. The defense wants to draw attention to how the protocol can be used for different purposes.
While the defendant continues to listen to the defense witnesses in the ongoing case about Storm, the legal responsibility of software developers in the crypto world comes to the agenda between the fight against crimes and financial privacy. In the existing sessions, issues are discussed whether errors can be made in technical tracking methods and whether the software developer can be held responsible for the behavior of users. The progress of the legal process strengthens the importance of this case, which can constitute a precedent, in terms of international financial and technology law.
Responsibility Rejection: The information contained in this article does not contain investment advice. Investors should be aware that crypto currencies carry high volatility and thus risk and carry out their operations in line with their own research.
