Tornado Cash Developers Face U.S. Money Laundering Charges, Raise Over $350K for Legal Defense

Edward Snowden publicly endorses the legal defense fund, warning that the arrests could pose a threat to the open-source software industry.

Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev are facing allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations in the U.S., with more than $1 billion in crypto alleged to have been moved through their mixing service.
Storm, a dual U.S. and Russian citizen, has been placed under house arrest in Washington State, with a trial expected in 2024. Pertsev has been in jail in The Netherlands since 2023.
Storm has set up a fundraising campaign via a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to secure legal representation. The fund has already received over $350K in donations.
Edward Snowden, the former NSA whistleblower, has publicly endorsed the legal defense fund and retweeted Storm's call for support, stating that 'Privacy is not a crime.'
Advocates for Storm and Pertsev express concerns that their arrests represent a broader threat to open-source software creation, with potential dire implications for developers across the industry.