Defence organisation Coin Center to challenge sanctions against Tornado Cash
They have filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury
Lawyers believe regulator exceeded its authority
Coin Center is a non-profit watchdog and an alliance of crypto industry advocates. Yesterday they announced their lawsuit against the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). It states that the agency exceeded its authority by declaring sanctions for the Tornado Cash mixer.
In their arguments, Coin Center cites that Tornado Cash and similar anonymizers “perform functions that do not involve any property that the government or sanctioned individuals may own.”
Lawyers also emphasise that the mixers are necessary to fulfil the primary function of cryptocurrencies – protecting the right to privacy. Overall, the Coin Center insists that the Ministry of Finance is acting beyond its authority and that such incidents pose a threat to civil liberties. The lawsuit will be heard by the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Recall that at the end of August, OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) officially banned the use of the mixer. A short time later, its developer was detained in Amsterdam. According to some reports, Alexander Pertsev, the creator of the software, was also working for Russian intelligence.
Our last post about Tornado cash – code is again available on github.
