ArbitrumDAO reportedly removed the proposal to contribute up to $1.28 million in cryptocurrency to Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev’s legal defense. This action did follow concerns raised by token holders regarding potential legal risks associated with such a donation.
It was reported on March 8th that Arbitrum DAO was deciding whether to support Tornado Cash’s legal expenses. Should it gain approval, 600,000 ARB tokens will be allocated within the first year, valued at almost $1.3 million at that time.
ArbitrumDAO revokes donation proposal
Arbitrum contributor Joseph Axisa recently proposed that between 200,000 and 600,000 ARB tokens (worth about $400,000 to $1.2 million) be allocated for a legal defense fund supporting Storm and Pertsev. They are currently facing charges in court for creating software with Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based smart contract protocol designed to make transactions more private, reported by Unchained on Friday.
However, another implicated co-founder Roman Semenov with Storm has been elusive so far. Nevertheless, this availability of the proposal on Arbitrum’s discourse forum published first on Wednesday lasted shortly. However, come evening of March 8th the post was off public view without much interest from platform community.
Although not very clear why it was removed, according to an Arbitrum representative this proposal had been taken down upon author’s request, The Block reports.
As per the application, these funds were supposed to go towards WeWantJusticeDAO’s crowdfunding campaign aimed at helping cover huge legal costs incurred by Storm and Pertsev estimated around $100K each month as can be seen on their fundraising webpage.
What was the proposal for Tornado Cash devs about?
On March 7, an anonymous delegate identified as DK proposed funding for a strong legal defense for Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, the creators of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash. “By rallying support for their legal fund, we aim to safeguard not only the future of privacy-preserving technologies but also the broader principles of innovation, decentralization, and individual sovereignty within our industry” it wrote.
Over $1 billion in illegal funds, including funds originating from Lazarus of North Korea, are alleged to have been laundered using the Tornado Cash platform which was created by them. The result of this is a series of serious legal actions taken against Tornado Cash such as its inclusion into the list if sanctioned entities is very damaging. This has literally banned customers from using it in the US, thus causing controversies amongst crypto enthusiasts.
Multiple charges have been filed against Storm and Pertsev by US authorities which include conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business.
Each of them carries a maximum sentence of twenty years whereas operating an unlicensed money transmitting business can be punished up to five years imprisonment.
