Tornado Cash developer fights money laundering charges, says creating privacy software not a crime

Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm filed a motion to dismiss money laundering and sanctions violation charges against him, arguing developing privacy software is not a crime.

The motion disputed the indictment's claim that Tornado Cash is a mixer service, saying it is non-custodial software maintaining user control.

It argued Storm did not conspire with alleged bad actors like North Korea's Lazarus group and had no agreement to engage in money laundering.

The filing said the charges wrongly conflate developing Tornado Cash with money laundering when Storm simply published open-source code.

It asked to compel U.S. authorities to share communications with Dutch authorities and suppress seizure of Storm's cryptocurrency, calling the warrant overbroad.