Federal prosecutors presented evidence suggesting that Roman Storm, the founder of Tornado Cash, would move millions through vinance, coordinated with co-founders to send out funds and buy offshore properties.
IRS-CI special agent Stephen George told the ju umpire he had tracked more than $533,000 in USDT from the Binance account, allegedly controlled by the storm. He said the funds were moved on August 9, 2022 and distributed across three wallet addresses.
Storm allegedly sent $2.6 million each to its co-founders.
Prosecutors showed chat logs for Tornado Cash founding trio Roman Storm, Roman Semenov and Alexey Pertsev. In one message, Storm wrote:
“I overloaded 8 million yesterday.”
Another message stated:
“We sent 2.6 million people each.”
Agent George said these communications showed Storm had access to funds and decision-making power for the wallet in question.
In another message, Storm reportedly said to a colleague:
“Open various offshores and give her the task to buy real estate.”*
The prosecutor also read a message from Semenov:
“I’ll send you something torn later to avoid being busted.”
Prosecutors argued that these messages revealed their intention to obscure transactions and profits from Tornado Cash’s business.
96% of Tornado’s cash users relied on the web interface
Earlier in the day, Anchain.ai prosecutor Philip Werlau testified that 96.2% of users accessed Tornado Cash via the user interface (UI) rather than through the command line.
He said the Lazarus Group had moved to CLI use only after US sanctions were imposed. Werlau said the action suggested a deliberate attempt to avoid detection.
During cross-examination, the defense of the Roman storm challenged Verlau’s conclusion. He highlighted that in May 2020, Tornado Cash’s smart contract pool became unchanging.
Klein also revealed that Tornado’s UI did not directly process the transactions. It required deposits and withdrawals to interact with Ethereum smart contracts, not centralized interfaces.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor submitted an email from Lin, a previous witness, addressed to Tornado Cash’s public inbox. Judge Phila warned the Ju judge not to treat the content as fact.
The inclusion of emails may be related to previously stated concerns of defense concerns, although no warning has been filed.
What’s next for Tornado Cash Trial?
The prosecutor is expected to take a break from the lawsuit tomorrow morning. Another hearing on the testimony of chain melting experts is still pending.
Storm’s defense is preparing to present its side, focusing on the immutability of tornado cash and the lack of control of the Storm after deployment.
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