Tornado Cash dev’s attorneys say prosecutors hid exculpatory evidence

Attorneys for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm filed a motion asking the court to reconsider the motion to dismiss the case due to the prosecution withholding exculpatory evidence in the form of communications with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dating back to 2023.

According to a May 16letterfrom Storm’s attorneys to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, the FinCEN documents show thatnon-custodial crypto mixersdo not fall under the legal definition of a “money transmitting business” and that prosecutors have known this since at least 2023.

Despite having knowledge of the FinCEN guidance on crypto mixers, state prosecutors still proceeded withcases against the Samourai Wallet developersand Tornado Cash, the attorneys alleged.

US prosecutorsdenied they withheld the evidence, claiming they submitted the FinCEN communications within the stipulated timeframe to produce the documents for the defense and the court during legal discovery.

Storm’s defense cited thesame legal documents and the same argumentthe Samourai Wallet developer’s attorneys posed to the court in a May 5 legalletter. Storm’s attorneys wrote:

The letter went on to argue that although the government continues to claim that the cases bear only “superficial similarities” to each other, they share the core characteristics of cryptocurrency mixers under the law, thus making the FinCEN documents salient to dismissing the case against Storm.

Related:Crypto group asks Trump to end prosecution of crypto devs, Roman Storm

Roman Storm’s trial moves ahead despite sanctions against Tornado ruled unlawful

Federal Judge Robert Pitman issued arulingon April 28 denying the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the ability to reimpose sanctions on Tornado Cash —setting a legal precedentfor non-custodial mixer cases.

Despite this, US federal prosecutors stillmoved ahead with the case against Stormalthough the charges have been modified.

Magazine:Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

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