{"id":125670,"date":"2025-03-24T06:15:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125670"},"modified":"2025-03-24T06:15:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:15:47","slug":"us-treasury-argues-no-need-for-final-court-judgment-in-tornado-cash-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125670","title":{"rendered":"US Treasury argues no need for final court judgment in Tornado Cash case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsThe US Treasury Department says there is no need for a final court judgment in a lawsuit over its sanctioning of Tornado Cash after dropping the crypto mixer from the sanctions list.
\nIn August 2022, Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash after alleging the protocol helped launder crypto stolen by North Korean hacking crew the Lazarus Group, leading to a number of Tornado Cash users filing a lawsuit against the regulator.\u00a0
\nAfter a court ruling in favor of Tornado Cash, the US Treasury dropped the mixer from its sanctions list on March 21, along with several dozen Tornado-affiliated smart contract addresses from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, and has now argued \u201cthis matter is now moot.\u201d
\nBecause Tornado Cash has been dropped from the sanctions list, the US Treasury Department argues there is no need for a final court judgment in the lawsuit. Source: Paul Grewal\u201cBecause this court, like all federal courts, has a continuing obligation to satisfy itself that it possesses Article III jurisdiction over the case, briefing on mootness is warranted,\u201d the US Treasury said.\u00a0
\nHowever, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the Treasury\u2019s hope to have the case declared moot before an official judgment can be made isn\u2019t the correct legal process.
\n\u201cAfter grudgingly delisting TC, they now claim they\u2019ve mooted any need for a final court judgment. But that\u2019s not the law, and they know it,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cUnder the voluntary cessation exception, a defendant\u2019s decision to end a challenged practice moots a case only if the defendant can show that the practice cannot \u2018reasonably be expected to recur.\u2019\u201d
\nGrewal pointed to a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that found a legal complaint from Yonas Fikre, a US citizen who was put on the No Fly List, is not moot by taking him off the list because the ban could be reinstated again at a later date.
\nSource: Paul Grewal\u201cHere, Treasury has likewise removed the Tornado Cash entities from the SDN, but has provided no assurance that it will not re-list Tornado Cash again. That\u2019s not good enough, and will make this clear to the district court,\u201d Grewal said.
\nSix Tornado Cash users led by Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon, with the support of Coinbase, sued the Treasury in September 2022 to reverse the sanctions under the argument that they were unlawful.
\nCrypto policy advocacy group Coin Center followed through with a similar suit in October 2022.
\nIn August 2023, a Texas federal court judge sided with the US Treasury, ruling that Tornado Cash was an entity that may be designated per OFAC regulations. On appeal,\u00a0a three-judge panel ruled in November that Treasury\u2019s sanctions against the crypto mixer\u2019s immutable smart contracts were unlawful.
\nUS Treasury had a 60-day window to challenge the decision, which it did; however, the US court sided with Tornado Cash, overturning the sanctions on Jan. 21 and forcing the government agency to remove the sanctions by March.
\nRelated: US Treasury under Trump could take a different approach to Tornado Cash
\nIts founders are still facing legal strife, however. The US charged Roman Storm and fellow co-founder Roman Semenov in August 2023, accusing them of helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash.\u00a0
\nSemenov is still at large and on the FBI\u2019s most wanted list. Storm is free on a $2 million bond and expected to face trial in April.\u00a0
\nMeanwhile, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was released from prison after a Dutch court suspended his \u201cpretrial detention\u201d as he prepared to appeal his money laundering conviction.
\nMagazine: Ripple says SEC lawsuit \u2018over,\u2019 Trump at DAS, and more: Hodler\u2019s Digest, March 16 \u2013 22Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsThe US Treasury Department says there is no need for a final court judgment in a lawsuit over its sanctioning of Tornado Cash after dropping the crypto mixer… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125670"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}