Tornado Cash Developer Storm Claims DOJ Bungled Critical Telegram Evidence

Key Points

1. Prosecutors initially attributed a Telegram message about cashing out $600M to Storm’s co-developer Alexey Pertsev, but defense revealed it was written by Andrew Thurman.

2. Storm’s defense argues the government’s evidence extraction was flawed, citing incomplete file retrieval and misattributed messages.

3. Prosecutors corrected the evidence in December 2024 after the defense raised the issue, but the defense claims false information was previously presented to the court.

4. The Ethereum Foundation pledged $500,000 toward Storm’s legal defense and matched up to $750,000 in community donations.

5. The DOJ’s crypto fraud crackdown includes seizing $225M in USDT linked to a global 'pig butchering' scam.