Three blockchain advocacy teams have filed amicus curiae briefs on April 5 to defend Twister Money developer Roman Storm from prison expenses within the US.
The filings assist Storm’s movement to dismiss the fees in opposition to him and current a number of arguments to make sure builders are shielded from such authorized motion.
The Blockchain Affiliation stated the federal government’s case has a “vital flaw,” and its adoption might have “hostile repercussions” for the crypto business.
The group’s head of authorized, Marisa Tashman Coppel, asserted that the federal government’s remedy of Twister Money as an unlicensed cash transmitter is unfounded. Underneath 18 USC § 1960 & FinCEN laws, cash transmitters should have wholly unbiased management over consumer property.
She stated:
“With out the flexibility to independently transfer funds on a consumer’s behalf, one can’t be a cash transmitter.”
Twister Money and the builders should not have management over funds as a result of the protocol is self-executing and immutable. Customers as a substitute preserve management over their property, that are held in swimming pools managed by non-custodial sensible contracts.
CoinCenter weighs in
CoinCenter’s Director of Analysis, Peter Van Valkenburg, stated the US authorities “wrongly charged the Twister Money builders with prison conspiracy.”
Just like the Blockchain Affiliation, Valkenburg and CoinCenter minimized builders’ function in Twister Money’s operations by referring to the platform’s sensible contract-based swimming pools.
Valkenburg additionally defined how Twister Money’s software program instruments and UI are non-essential, which means that the defendants didn’t execute transactions, comingle property, obtain funds, or present secret notes — even when the platform was used for these functions.
He in contrast Twister Money to TurboTax, which gives customers with a helpful solution to do taxes however can’t file and pay taxes on their behalf.
CoinCenter additionally superior authorized arguments supporting software program publication as free speech and supporting statutory exemptions for informational transactions. It in contrast Twister Money to SWIFT, stating that each platforms needs to be free from direct sanctions as a result of every solely handles data.
DeFi Schooling Fund
The DeFi Schooling Fund argued that builders shouldn’t be held accountable when a 3rd social gathering makes use of their software program for prison exercise.
The group’s Chief Authorized Officer, Amanda Tuminelli, defined that the US authorities has by no means used a selected statute, the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act (IEEPA), in a comparable approach.
In over 100 different current circumstances surveyed by the DeFi Schooling Fund, the federal government accused the defendant of interacting with a sanctioned counterparty. Nonetheless, builders of platforms like Twister Money should not have any such counterparties.
Movement to dismiss
Storm and his legal professionals initially filed a movement to dismiss the prison expenses on March 29. The amicus curiae filings from every advocacy group explicitly assist that movement.
It’s not but clear whether or not the movement for dismissal will succeed, because the case remains to be in its early proceedings. The US Division of Justice charged Roman Storm in August 2023, and he’ll stay on bail till his September trial.
The US Division additionally charged one other Twister Money developer, Roman Semenov, alongside Storm. Semenov’s location is unknown.
The US Treasury and OFAC sanctioned Twister Money in August 2022, alleging that the platform has laundered over $7 billion of crypto since 2019. It linked a fraction of that exercise to the North Korean state-sponsored group Lazarus Group.
