Tornado Cash co-founder pleads not guilty to laundering over $1 bln

U.S. officials say the process helps cryptocurrency owners conceal their identities and ill-gotten gains. Another Tornado Cash co-founder, Roman Semenov, was indicted alongside Storm but remains at large.

A co-founder of Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency platform under U.S. sanctions, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal charges he helped facilitate more than $1 billion in money laundering, including for a cybercrime group linked to North Korea's government.

Roman Storm, a naturalized U.S. citizen, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan. "We think the government got it wrong here," Storm's lawyer Brian Klein told the judge.

Storm was arrested on Aug. 23 and released on a $2 million bond secured by his home in Washington state. The U.S. Treasury banned Tornado Cash last November, saying North Korea's Lazarus Group, which is also under U.S. sanctions, used it the previous April and May to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in hacking proceeds.

Tornado Cash is a so-called virtual currency "mixer," which mashes cryptocurrencies from many users. U.S. officials say the process helps cryptocurrency owners conceal their identities and ill-gotten gains.

Another Tornado Cash co-founder, Roman Semenov, was indicted alongside Storm but remains at large.