On Friday, the US Treasury raised sanctions against Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash, a cryptographic company accused of having helped to whiten more than $ 7 billion for cybercriminals, including North Korean pirates. In 2022, the Treasury put on a black species for its role in the laundering of $ 455 million stolen by the Lazarus hacking group.
The movement arouses criticism from Grewal
But this decision sparked a strong reaction. In a final post X, Coinbase Legal Director Paul Grewal has publicly criticized the US Treasury for his management of Tornado Cash. He argues that the Treasury is wrong to avoid a final court decision.
Grewal criticizes the US Treasury for the continuation of legal actions against Tornado Treasury, even after his withdrawal from the specially designated list of Nationals (NTC). The Treasury now claims that a final decision of the court is not necessary, but Grewal argues that this is contrary to legal procedures.
He shared that this is only valid if the defendant can prove that the problem will not happen again. He also mentioned the previous cases where the sanctions were lifted, but the case remained open, which allows them to reimed later.
“Here, the Treasury has also removed the Tornado Tornado Treasury entities, but has not assured that it will no longer reflux in the tornado.
Grewal criticisms occur during a long legal battle where Tornado Cash users challenged the Treasury’s decision to add the mixer to the list of NTCs. Users argued that the intelligent contract was not considered a property under the International Economic Powers (IEPA) because it cannot be erasable.
Although the Tribunal has stored on the user side, clarifying the status of the intelligent tornado contract, despite this, Grewal criticized the Treasury for not having completely followed the court’s decision.
Coinbase, Ethereum Back Tornado Cash Foundation
Tornado Cash was supported by groups like Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation, which support the defense of the main developer Alexey Pertsev. The legal battle was intense, the supporters claiming that the actions of the Treasury were unfair and lacked clear legal grounds.
The lifting of sanctions against tornado trees is an important step in the current debate on the way in which cryptographic mixers should be regulated. The treasure raised them after examining legal problems, but has always expressed its concern in the face of North Korea use of digital assets for hacking and money laundering.
