Last Updated on September 7, 2023 by Bitfinsider

In a court appearance on Wednesday, Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm entered a “not guilty” plea to allegations of conspiring to run a money transmitter, aid in money laundering, and evade sanctions.

According to Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Storm, a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, would be freed on a $2 million personal recognisance bond that is backed by his Washington state domicile and co-signed by one “financially responsible” individual.

The co-founder of Tornado Cash will continue to be subject to routine drug tests at his Washington residence while under house arrest. He is prohibited from contacting any witnesses, alleged victims, co-defendants, or firearm owners. For pre-trial hearings, Storm is limited to travelling between his home base and the central districts of California, as well as the southern and eastern districts of New York and New Jersey.

Storm was taken into custody two weeks ago on suspicion of operating an unregistered money transmitter, conspiring to promote money laundering, and breaking sanctions. Prosecutors claim that during the course of developing Tornado Cash, he and fellow engineers and cofounders Roman Semenov and Alexey Pertsev assisted criminals in the laundering of over $1 billion in cryptocurrency, including “hundreds of millions” for North Korea.

Pertsev was taken into custody by Dutch authorities in the previous year, and he is still awaiting trial there. Indicted with Storm, Semenov has not yet been taken into custody as of this writing.

Storm’s attorney, Brian Klein, a partner at Waymaker LLP, previously said in a statement that federal authorities were prosecuting code developers on a “novel legal theory.”