Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm pleads not guilty

Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm pleaded not guilty in a New York District Court on Wednesday, according to Inner City Press.

Storm was arrested in August after he and fellow co-founder Roman Semenov were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

Prosecutors called Tornado Cash "an infamous cryptocurrency mixer that laundered more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds and violated U.S. sanctions." 

Judge Katherine Polk Failla is overseeing the case in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York. Failla is also overseeing a separate case involving Coinbase and the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Controversy swirling around Tornado Cash

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, designated Tornado Cash as a sanctioned entity last year, barring people in the U.S. and firms looking to operate in the U.S. from financial interactions with them. 

This drew widespread criticism from crypto advocates such as the Blockchain Association, which has said the Treasury Department's move was "unprecedented and unlawful."