Tornado Cash Co-founder Listed To SDN For Money Laundering Allegations

Key Points:

• The co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Semenov, was added to US OFAC’s SDN List due to his suspected involvement in money laundering through cryptocurrency services.
• Tornado Cash, accused of laundering billions in virtual currency, was initially blacklisted by the US Treasury.
• A US federal court upholds sanctions on Tornado Cash following a civil lawsuit, supported by Coinbase, challenging Treasury’s authority.

Roman Semenov, a co-founder of Tornado Cash, has been newly included in the US Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List.

The SDN List, featuring numerous entities and individuals regarded as posing threats to US national security, enforces restrictions on trade and financial interactions with those listed. This entails bans on investing in blacklisted entities’ controlling interests and on new long-term debts.

Dutch authorities arrested Semenov in Amsterdam last year on suspicion of aiding criminal financial activities and facilitating money laundering through the cryptocurrency service Tornado Cash.

The platform, which enabled relatively anonymous cryptocurrency exchanges, faced sanctions by the US Treasury in August for allegedly laundering billions of dollars worth of virtual currency, including funds supposedly stolen by North Korean hackers.

In a subsequent move, the Treasury reversed its initial blacklisting of Tornado Cash in November, instead reclassifying the platform as materially assisting North Korea’s cyber endeavors after considering additional information.

A recent federal court ruling sustained the sanctions against the decentralized cryptocurrency platform Tornado Cash following a civil lawsuit against the US Treasury Department and its leaders.

Filed by six individuals last September in Austin, Texas, the lawsuit claimed that the department’s designations overstepped its jurisdiction and violated the First Amendment.

The legal action received backing from crypto exchange Coinbase Global, aimed at safeguarding privacy in the crypto realm, as stated by CEO Brian Armstrong.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.