By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
In a recent letter addressed to Janet Yellen, Secretary of the US Treasury, Tom Emmer questioned the agency’s Sanction of Tornado Cash. Minnesota’s Sixth District Congressman referred to the sanction as the first of its kind.
US Congressman Condemns The Tornado Cash Sanction
On August 23rd, Tom Emmer, US Congressman, revealed that he sent a letter to Janet Yellen concerning the ban on the crypto mixer, Tornado Cash. The letter dated August 8th contained various questions asking the Treasury’s OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) to clarify its position on the matter.
According to Emmer, the OFAC acted under Executive Order 13694 and added Tornado Cash to its SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) and Blocked Person List. For the first time, the agency went beyond the EO’s definition of individual or person.
He referred to the distinction of the FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) between anonymizing software and anonymizing services to illustrate the problem with OFAC’s sanction.
Additionally, Emmer noted that the regulations of FinCEN do not apply to OFAC. The Congressman’s questions were quite practical. He said the sanctions were not against an entity or a person but a ‘privacy-enabling’ code.
“Tornado Cash protocol is a collection of anonymous ETH smart contract addresses. As long as ETH network is operating, Tornado Cash’s backend will still be operating. What individual or entity did OFAC sanction for operating the crypto mixer?,” Emmer stated.
How Can Law Abiding Tornado Cash Users Recover Their Funds? – Emmer
Furthermore, the Congressman asked about the funds that belong to those who did not use Tornado Cash for unlawful practices. This is because their wallet addresses were banned as well.
Since they are smart contracts and do not have any agency to appeal for them, he questioned the agency on how they could recover their funds.
Meanwhile, Emmer is a House of Rep’s Financial Services Committee member and has been very vocal about regulating cryptocurrencies. In recent months, he has criticized the policy of the US SEC towards crypto firms and crypto usage.
Also, he showed massive support for crypto miners before the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). He was also a sponsor of the latest version of the DCEA (Digital Commodity Exchange Act).
He is not the only one unhappy with the recent sanction of Tornado Cash. Coin Center noted that it would challenge the action of the US agency in court.
Meanwhile, several reports alleged that fraudsters, including the North Korea Lazarus group, had used the protocol to launder stolen crypto funds worth millions.
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