A US federal court judge has ruled that Tornado Cash Co-founder Roman Storm’s case will go to trial.
The developer had filed a motion to dismiss the case against him.
He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to violate the International Economic Emergency Powers Act.
Parallelly, he also has charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business pressed against him.
Now, Judge Katherine Failla of the Southern District of New York denied Storm’s motion to dismiss the aforementioned three charges thrust by the US DoJ.
She underlined that she doesn’t think that Tornado Cash was “meaningfully different” from other money transmitting businesses or financial institutions.
Moreover, she indicated that the service was not “a selfless endeavor,” highlighting claims that a venture capital fund supplied funding in return for future profits, the relayer functionality, and the involvement of TORN tokens.
Failla said that at this stage in the case, the court “cannot simply accept” Storm's narrative that he is being prosecuted merely for writing code.
She added,
“If the jury ultimately accepts this narrative, then it will acquit. But there's no basis for me to decide that as a matter of law.”
The developer’s trial is slated to begin in New York in December, and is expected to last for a fortnight. If he is convicted on all three counts, he will face a sentence of up to 45 years in prison.
Time and again the developer has argued that the outcome of this case is crucial for the entire blockchain industry.
Community members have been quite pouring in support and making assertions like “code = free speech,” defend freedom,” “open source is not a crime,” “code is not guilty, the right should be upheld,” “crypto is freedom,” “Tornado Cash is not a terrorist weapon, it’s a privacy tool,” and “freedom of privacy should be protected both on-chain and off-chain.”
Some of them have also gone to the extent of exclaiming “I will not stand by the presence of evil.”
