The US Treasury Department has announced that it is lifting sanctions against a cryptocurrency mixer service, tornado cash, which has been accused on the Lazarus Group associated with North Korea, so that they to increase their sick income.
Treasury said in a statement, “Based on the development of development and financial and commercial activity within the legal environment, novels taken from the use of novel legal and policy issues administration, we have used our discretion to remove economic sanctions against tornado cash.”
With this step, more than 100 atherium (Ath) wallet addresses are also being removed from specially designated National (SDN) list.
The office office of the office of the department added tornado cash to the list of its sanctions in August 2022. It was estimated that more than the virtual assets of more than $ 7.6 billion were used since its creation in 2019, the Treasury said at that time.
However, an American fifth circuit court issued a decision in November 2024, in which a decision about the mixer was reversed, when it approved the Cryptocurrency Mixer, the OFAC “overseased the authority defined as its Congress”.
It stems from the view of the court that the approval of the approval of the OFAC does not reach the tornado cash as its irreversible smart contracts cannot be considered as “property” under the International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEEPA).
According to documents filed by the Treasury Department as part of the case, “Regarding irreversible smart contracts, the court argued, no person is under control and hence ‘there is no party.”
It further stated that it is committed to using its powers to deal with and disrupt malicious cyber actors to deal with and disrupt the ecosystem of digital assets, and this will do everything in its ability to restrict North Korea’s ability to fund their weapons of North Korea’s collective destruction and ballistic missile programs.
The Secretary of Treasury Scott Besant said, “Digital property offers huge opportunities for innovation and value creation for American people.”
“It is necessary to establish American leadership and ensure that American people may benefit from financial innovation and inclusion to secure the digital asset industry by misbehavior by North Korea and other illegal actors.”
In May last May, a Dutch court on Tuesday sentenced a Dutch Partsev, which was one of the co-founders of tornado cash in 5 years and 4 months jail. Its two other founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were convicted by the US Department of Justice in August 2023.
