{"id":125901,"date":"2025-03-27T04:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T04:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125901"},"modified":"2025-03-27T04:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T04:16:07","slug":"crypto-urges-congress-to-change-doj-rule-used-against-tornado-cash-devs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125901","title":{"rendered":"Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsA coalition of crypto firms has urged Congress to press the Department of Justice to amend an \u201cunprecedented and overly expansive\u201d interpretation of laws that were used to charge the developers of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
\nA March 26 letter signed by 34 crypto companies and advocate groups sent to the Senate Banking Committee, House Financial Services Committee and the House and Senate judiciary committees said the DOJ\u2019s take on unlicensed money-transmitting business means \u201cessentially every blockchain developer could be prosecuted as a criminal.\u201d
\nThe letter \u2014 led by the DeFi Education Fund and signed by the likes of Kraken and Coinbase \u2014 added that the Justice Department\u2019s interpretation \u201ccreates confusion and ambiguity\u201d and \u201cthreatens the viability of U.S.-based software development in the digital asset industry.\u201d
\nThe group said the DOJ debuted its position \u201cin August 2023 via criminal indictment\u201d \u2014\u00a0the same time it charged Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov with money laundering.
\nStorm has been released on bail, has pleaded not guilty and wants the charges dropped. Semenov, a Russian national, is at large.
\nSource: DeFi Education FundThe DOJ has filed similar charges against Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, who have both pleaded not guilty.
\nThe crypto group\u2019s letter argued that two sections of the US Code define a \u201cmoney transmitting business\u201d \u2014 Title 31 section 5330, defining who must be licensed and Title 18 section 1960, which criminalizes operating unlicensed.
\nIt added that 2019 guidance from the Treasury\u2019s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) gave examples of what money-transmitting activities and said that \u201cif a software developer never obtains possession or control over customer funds, that developer is not operating a \u2018money transmitting business.\u2019\u201d
\nThe letter argued that the DOJ had taken a position that the definition of a money transmitting business under section 5330 \u201cis not relevant to determining whether someone is operating an unlicensed \u2018money transmitting business\u2019 under Section 1960\u201d despite the \u201cintentional similarity\u201d in both sections and FinCEN\u2019s guidance.
\nRelated: Hester Peirce calls for SEC rulemaking to \u2018bake in\u2019 crypto regulation\u00a0
\nThe group accused the DOJ of ignoring both FinCEN\u2019s guidance and parts of the law to pursue its own interpretation of a money-transmitting business when it charged Storm and Semenov.
\nThey said the result had seen \u201ctwo separate US government agencies with conflicting interpretations of \u2018money transmission\u2019 \u2014 an unclear, unfair position for law-abiding industry participants and innovators.\u201d
\nThe letter said that if not addressed, the Justice Department\u2019s interpretation would expose non-custodial software developers \u201cwithin the reach of the U.S. to criminal liability.\u201d
\n\u201cThe resulting, and very rational, fear among developers would effectively end the development of these technologies in the United States.\u201d
\nIn January, Michael Lewellen, a fellow of the crypto advocacy group Coin Center, sued Attorney General Merrick Garland to have his planned release of non-custodial software declared legal and to block the DOJ from using money transmitting laws to prosecute him.
\nLewellen said the DOJ \u201chas begun criminally prosecuting people for publishing similar cryptocurrency software,\u201d which he claims extended the interpretation of money-transmitting laws \u201cbeyond what the Constitution allows.\u201d
\nMagazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick \u2014 \u2018The ambulance chaser of crypto\u2019\u00a0\u00a0Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsA coalition of crypto firms has urged Congress to press the Department of Justice to amend an \u201cunprecedented and overly expansive\u201d interpretation of laws that were used to… <\/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\/125901"}],"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=125901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}