Quote:Storm said in a Dec. 18 motion in a Manhattan district court that an opinion last month from the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court on a separate case finding the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) exceeded its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash’s smart contracts “makes clear that all three counts of the indictment are fatally and legally flawed.”

He argued the opinion “most obviously impacts” his charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a law central to the US sanctions apparatus, as the appeals court found the smart contracts “are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity,” meaning they “cannot be blocked” under the law.