The defense team of Tornado Cash developer, Roman Storm, is accusing prosecutors from the U.S. federal government of withholding key evidence that could see the crypto founder set free in a new letter to U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla on Friday.
Exculpatory Evidence Discovered, Lawyers for Roman Storm Say
According to Storm’s counsel, the government has “possessed exculpatory materials” regarding evidence pertinent to the developer’s criminal trial since August 2023.
The defense lawyers claim that the federal prosecutors’ view of Tornado Cash as a “money-transmitting business” goes against their August 2023 statement where FinCEN officials claimed that fellow crypto mixer, Samourai Wallet, does not count as a money transmitter given its non-custodial nature.
Given that Tornado Cash is also non-custodial, Storm’s team argues that the government is going against its own stance by indicting the crypto developer.
“The disclosures in the Samourai case reveal that the government, at the very least, played fast and loose and, at worst, affirmatively misled this court,” the letter reads.
U.S. Prosecutors Defend Their Stance
Meanwhile, prosecutors are pushing back on the defense’s claims after Storm’s team expressed “concern about the government’s belated disclosures in the Samourai case” in a May 8 letter.
“The Government disclosed all known substantive communications between the prosecution team and FinCEN regarding Samourai Wallet months in advance of pretrial motions and trial,” U.S. prosecutors said in a recent filing.
“Indeed, the defendants will have seven months to make use of the information before trial,” they added. “Nothing more is warranted.”
U.S. Sees Changing Crypto Regulations
The controversial Tornado Cash case comes amid shifting crypto regulations in the United States as President Donald Trump relaxes rulemaking on the blockchain sector.
On April 7, the Deputy Attorney General’s Office released a memorandum stating it would, in part, “no longer target virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.”
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