DOJ restricts prosecution of crypto to those with criminal intent. The developers have clarity following the Roman Storm case
A clear message is sent by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The mere writing of code does not have criminal intent. This counters accusations against the co-founder of Tornado Cash, known as Roman Storm.
He was convicted of the charge of unlicensed transmission of money. But he was not found guilty of violating sanctions.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti addressed the American Innovation Project Summit. He said the DOJ is on bad actors who intentionally commit a crime.
They do not attack developers making neutral tools. Such tools can be used improperly by other developers, but it is not the fault of the software developer.
What Changes in Enforcement?
There is a growing emphasis on digital assets by the Department of Justice. They only charge under unlicensed money transmission laws in cases of plain evidence of willful non-compliance.
According to Galeotti, criminal intent should not result in the prosecution of developers of decentralized and non-custodial software. This represents a change in the last aggressive measures toward crypto developers. The DOJ has the desire to shield innovators and penalize criminals.
The case of Roman Storm demonstrates this new manner. He was only convicted of unlicensed money transmission. Charges such as money laundering were not established.
According to his defense, he had no control following the decentralization, and he acted without criminal intent.
This assisted in the split verdict of the jury. Analysts suggest that the DOJ might not re-prosecute those charges federally that have been dropped
This is good news for developers. Prosecutors have stated that the existence of the code has not been a criminal act because there was no illegal intent behind its creation.
They will aim at actual crimes and not technology. According to Galeotti, the developers of neutral tools and without any criminal intent, should not be responsible for the actions of others.
DOJ Tech-Neutral enforcement
Galeotti said enforcement is agnostic to the technology. Additionally, the legislation applies to digital assets in the same way that it does to financial assets. Fraud, money laundering, and sanctions evasion will be the areas of interest to the DOJ.
They do not approve of the use of criminal charges as a regulation. This is in the vein of a memo by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The memo ended prosecution-based regulation in crypto.
The DOJ is looking to prosecute the bad actors who scam, hack, or misappropriate funds. In recent times, they have charged a money laundering network based in China in Los Angeles.
They also made a $225 million civil forfeiture associated with crypto fraud. Innovative changes can become possible without fear among the good-faith developers. This position secures a programmer.s However, criminals are not safe. The DOJ does not wish to kill blockchain innovation. Roman Storm is a lesson and a pointer.
