FBI Arrests Tornado Cash Co-Founder

OFAC listed on August 23 Roman Storm and Roman Semenov on their sanctions list, after they were indicted by the US Department of Justice for money laundering and violating sanctions.

Storm was taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while Semyonov is still at large.

Reports indicate that the two had conspired to launder money and violate restrictions through their crypto-mixer website, Tornado Cash.

Records from Elliptic Connect show that from 8 sanctioned addresses associated with the website, over $11.5 million in various crypto assets have been processed.

In August 2022, OFAC added the Tornado Cash website to its sanctions list on the grounds that it had aided hackers with money laundering, processing more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies, including $455 million in funds related to North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.

In April 2023, the court changed the issued preventive measure for the website developer, Alexey Pertsev, to house arrest, although he has denied any involvement in money laundering or concealing criminal financial flows.