Tom Emmer raised some concerns about the Sanction of Tornado Cash in a letter that he just sent to Janet Yellen, who is the Secretary of the United States Treasury. The member of Congress representing Minnesota’s Sixth District referred to the sentence as the first of its kind.
A member of the United States Congress is against the Tornado Cash Sanction.
Tom Emmer, a member of Congress in the United States, disclosed on the 23rd of August that he had written a letter to Janet Yellen in regards to the prohibition of the cryptocurrency mixer known as Tornado Cash. In the letter dated August 8th, multiple inquiries were posed to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury, requesting that they elaborate on their stance about the issue.
According to Emmer, the OFAC carried out an action in accordance with Executive Order 13694 and added Tornado Cash to its SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) and Blocked Person List. The government agency extended the definition of “individual” or “person” in the executive order for the very first time.
As an example of the issue with OFAC’s sanction, he cited the division that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) maintains between anonymizing software and anonymizing services.
In furthermore, Emmer mentioned that OFAC is exempt from the regulations that FinCEN has in place for the organization. The questions posed by the congressman were quite applicable to real life. He explained that the sanctions were not directed at a particular organization or individual but rather a “privacy-enabling” code.
“The Tornado Cash protocol is essentially a collection of anonymous addresses for ETH smart contracts. Tornado Cash’s backend will continue to function normally so long as the Ethereum network is up and running. What person or entity was sanctioned by OFAC for conducting the cryptocurrency mixer?,” Emmer asked.
How Are Customers Who Obeyed the Law and Used Tornado Cash Supposed to Recoup Their Losses? – Emmer
In addition, the congressman inquired about the funds that belong to individuals who did not utilize Tornado Cash for any activities that violated the law. This is because the addresses associated with their wallets were also restricted.
Because these are smart contracts and there is no agency that can hear appeals for them, he questioned the agency about how they could get their money back. He noted that there is no agency that can hear appeals for smart contracts.
In the meanwhile, Emmer is a member of the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee and has been quite vocal about the need to regulate cryptocurrencies. Over the past several months, he has been vocal in his criticism of the US SEC’s approach to crypto businesses and cryptocurrency use.
Additionally, he shown enormous support for cryptocurrency miners in front of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Additionally, he was a sponsor for the most recent iteration of the DCEA (Digital Commodity Exchange Act).
He is not the only person who is dissatisfied with the latest punishment handed down to Tornado Cash. The Coin Center stated that it would file a legal appeal against the decision made by the US agency.
In the meantime, a number of publications claimed that dishonest individuals, including the North Korea Lazarus gang, had exploited the protocol to clean millions of dollars’ worth of stolen cryptocurrency money.
