On March 21, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed the cryptocurrency mixing service (cryptomixer) Tornado Cash from the SDN list. This was reported in an official publication on the agency's website.
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What is known
Both the Tornado Cash name and dozens of associated cryptocurrency addresses on the Ethereum network were removed from the list.
Tornado Cash was sanctioned in 2022 because, according to US authorities, the service was used to facilitate multi-million dollar transactions related to money laundering, including those involving hackers linked to North Korea.
OFAC also updated its information on Roman Semenov, who was previously named as one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash. He remains under sanctions, but some technical data on his card has been changed.
The US Treasury explained that the decision to remove Tornado Cash from the sanctions list was made “following a review of the legal and policy issues associated with the application of sanctions in a rapidly evolving technology and regulatory environment.”
At the same time, the department emphasized that it remains seriously concerned about North Korea’s activities in the area of hacker attacks and money laundering using digital assets.
Let us recall
In August 2023, the US Department of Justice indicted Russian Roman Semenov and American Roman Storm, who are said to be the co-founders of Tornado Cash.
According to investigators, they used a cryptocurrency mixer to launder more than $1 billion, including “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group, which is under US sanctions.
Semenov and Storm were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, violating international economic activity laws, and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 5 to 20 years in prison.
Storm was arrested in the United States on the day the charges were filed. Semenov, as indicated in the Justice Department's materials, remained at large.
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- Cryptocurrency US Sanctions