NEW YORK — Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm pleaded “not guilty” to charges of conspiring to operate a money transmitter or facilitate money laundering and sanctions evasion in a court appearance Wednesday.
Storm, a U.S. resident, was arrested two weeks ago on charges of conspiracy to facilitate money laundering and sanctions evasion. Prosecutors allege that he, alongside fellow developers and cofounders Roman Semenov and Alexey Pertsev, helped bad actors launder over $1 billion in stolen crypto, including “hundreds of millions” for North Korea, through their work building Tornado Cash.
Pertsev was arrested last year by authorities in The Netherlands, where he remains awaiting trial. Semenov was indicted alongside Storm, but has not been arrested as of press time.
Brian Klein, a partner at Waymaker LLP representing Storm, previously said in a statement that federal officials were using a “novel legal theory” to prosecute someone for developing code.
