Paradigm Files Amicus On Behalf Of Roman Storm:

In light of the court's "incorrect" interpretation of money transmission laws, the jury must be instructed to find that Storm knew his conduct was unlawful.

The brief gets to the heart of what's at issue here:

Did Storm, or did he not, know that the US Government requires a license for developing non-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols?

To be convicted, it’s not enough for the Government to show that Storm objectively operated an unlicensed money service business based on whatever nonsense interpretation of 1960 SDNY is pulling out of their behinds.

The jury must find that Storm *knowingly* violated the law – which will likely be hard to show as not even senior FiCEN officials themselves believe that non-custodial software developers are subject to MSB licensing requirements under current guidance.

So far, legal scholars and industry professionals alike agree that *no one* interpreted 1960 to cover protocols like Tornado Cash, as it’s simply an “incorrect” interpretation of the law, as Paradigm states in their brief.

The prosecution is so absurd that, according to Paradigm, its analogous to holding Apple liable for conspiracies formed through iPhone conversations, leather craftsmen for wallets holding stolen cash, and television manufacturers for state secrets being divulged on-air.

“It would be profoundly unfair and contrary to due process for Storm to be found guilty, despite clear FinCEN guidance, established case law, and resulting industry consensus, that operation of a money transmission business requires control of funds and payment of a fee.”

**This is precisely why the Government wants all of Storm’s expert witnesses thrown out.**

Not because they “waste jury time,” as SDNY claims, but because they’d only go on to prove that Storm did not knowingly commit a crime, and that SDNY’s claims are nothing but a big bunch of bogus in a case of Government overreach of astronomical proportions.