The venture capital company Paradigm has filed a memory of AMICUS in support of the co-founder of Tornado Cash Roman Storm, arguing that the jury must be correctly informed of the definition of the law of what the functioning of a money transmission company implies.
The jury needs the full context of the law
In his memory of AMICUS, deposited with a New York district court on June 13, Paradigm argues that the court must ensure that the jury understands that for the storm to be convicted, the accusation must prove that he knowingly exploited a money transmission company.
This includes invoicing costs, the transmission knowingly transmitted to the name of the public, knowingly managing the specific product presumed to be criminal and having custody or the control of the funds transmitted or transferred.
A memory of AMICUS is deposited by a party which is not directly involved in a judicial case but has an interest in the result and hopes to provide the councils in the court or to another perspective.
The torade in cash is a non -guardian cryptography mixture protocol; The developers do not hold or control the funds. The American New York lawyer’s office argues that Storm conspired to manage the crypto mixture as a silver issuer without license.
Software developers are not money issuers
Katie Biber, Legal Director of Paradigm, and Gina Moon, the lawyer general of the cabinet, said on Tuesday in a blog article that the accusation argument is “contrary to the raw text of the law, clear advice from Fincen and decades of jurisprudence”.
Biber and Moon argue that under former President Obama, the US Treasury Department noted in 2014 that the development of software was not constituting and transmitting value.
They also argued that in 2019, the ministry noted that the total independent control of the user crypto was a factor to determine if an intermediary is a silver issuer.
“Allowing this accusation to persist the risks of letting prosecutors not elected to modify the simple meaning of criminal laws – and threaten daily citizens of imprisonment even if they follow regulatory advice largely disseminated and accepted,” they said.
The United States accused Roman Storm and its Romanesque co-founder colleague Semenov in August 2023, accusing them of helping to bleach more than a billion dollars in crypto through the Tornado Cash.
A guilt verdict could also affect innovation
Biber and Moon said that the “challenges of this question are high” because if the storm is found guilty, it could hinder innovation and the development of crypto and fintech software.
At the same time, they said it could have training effects on the wider communities of open source, AI and technology because software developers could be held responsible for the way their products are used.
In relation: The Ethereum Foundation promises $ 500,000 to the defense of Roman Storm
“It is as absurd as to continue a television manufacturer for sharing state secrets in the air, leather wallet craftsmen for wallets holding stolen money, or Apple for Conspiracies formed by iPhone Conversations,” said Biber and Moon.
The trial should start on July 14. A conspiracy to exploit a commercial charge for transmitting money without license was abandoned on May 15 after the Ministry of Justice published a memo in April which said that the agency would not pursue cryptographic mixers like Tornado Cash for user activities.
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