• Federal prosecutors filed a 113-page transient asking U.S. District Decide Katherine Polk Feira to disclaim Storm’s movement to overturn his August 2025 conviction for working an unlawful cash switch enterprise.
• Again in August 2022, the U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of International Belongings Management (OFAC) sanctioned Twister Money for facilitating the unlawful cryptocurrency laundering of over $7 billion.
• If a court docket finds that deploying or sustaining code is equal to operating a cash switch enterprise, it might create main authorized points for builders of privateness instruments and crypto mixers.

Federal prosecutors have filed a 113-page transient asking U.S. District Decide Katherine Polk Feira to disclaim Roman Storm’s movement to overturn his August 2025 conviction for working an unlawful cash switch enterprise.

The jury on the time deadlocked on two extra critical prices: cash laundering and sanctions evasion.

Ministry of Justice insists on “purposeful authority” quite than decentralization

Prosecutors say the proof in opposition to Storm was overwhelming, emphasizing that they consider Storm and co-defendants maintained purposeful authority over Twister Money, regardless of their claims that the platform was decentralized in nature.

Again in August 2022, the U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of International Belongings Management (OFAC) sanctioned Twister Money for facilitating the unlawful cryptocurrency laundering of over $7 billion, together with funds related to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Associated: Ethereum falls 13% this week, with 4,920 ETH price $16.25 million leaked from Twister Money

Curiously, this case is now being seen by many as a significant landmark case that may decide whether or not privateness instrument creators will probably be held criminally liable, even when they by no means truly maintain or management customers’ cash.

If a court docket upholds that deploying or sustaining code is tantamount to operating a cash switch enterprise, it might create main authorized issues for builders of privateness instruments and crypto mixers.

What’s Twister Money?

Twister Money is an Ethereum-based privateness mixer launched in 2019 by builders Roman Storm, Roman Semenov, and Alexey Pertsev.

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARKs) are used to fully separate senders and receivers on the blockchain. Customers can deposit funds right into a shared pool after which withdraw the identical quantity to a brand new pockets handle, leaving no public report linking the 2 transactions.

Not like custodial mixers, Twister Money was designed as a very non-custodial automated protocol, with builders claiming they don’t have any management over customers’ funds. At its peak, Twister Money processed greater than $1 billion in month-to-month transaction quantity in the course of the top of the market, attracting each privacy-seeking customers and criminals seeking to cowl their tracks.

For the cryptocurrency market, the lawsuit in opposition to Twister Money, or extra exactly Roman Storm, creates new authorized dangers for privateness, coin mixers, and DeFi-focused initiatives. This improvement not solely impacts investor confidence, however might additionally change the way in which builders construct most of these providers sooner or later.

Associated: US court docket overturns sanctions on crypto mixer Twister Money