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📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 15
  • Relationships: 13
  • Research debt items: 4

Documented Proceedings Involving Software Authors and Operators

Summary

This page inventories documented U.S. and selected foreign proceedings in which people who wrote, published, or operated software faced criminal investigation, prosecution, civil injunction, or OFAC sanctions. Entries record the software category, legal authority cited by the government or court, and documented outcome.

Verified Facts

Money transmitting / mixer criminal cases

  • In United States v. Rodriguez (Samourai Wallet), co-founders of Samourai Wallet pled guilty to conspiracy to operate a money transmitting business knowing it transmitted crime proceeds and received sentences of five years and four years.12
  • In United States v. Storm, a Tornado Cash co-founder was charged with conspiracies including money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and IEEPA violations; the USAO reported an August 2025 conviction for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.34
  • In Netherlands v. Pertsev (Tornado Cash), a Dutch court convicted a Tornado Cash developer of money laundering and imposed a 64-month sentence (ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2024:2069).5

OFAC sanctions on mixing software / services

  • On May 6, 2022, Treasury announced OFAC’s designation of Blender.io, described as the first sanctions action against a virtual currency mixer, under E.O. 13694.6
  • On August 8, 2022, Treasury announced OFAC’s designation of Tornado Cash under E.O. 13694; see TOPIC-TORNADO-CASH.7
  • In Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury, the Fifth Circuit held that Tornado Cash immutable smart contracts are not “property” under IEEPA and that OFAC exceeded its authority by blocking them.8

Encryption publication investigation (no indictment)

  • In the Zimmermann / PGP investigation, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California declined prosecution in January 1996 and closed the investigation into the June 1991 USENET posting of Pretty Good Privacy.9

Circumvention software — criminal DMCA

  • In United States v. Sklyarov / Elcomsoft, a programmer and company were indicted under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 for trafficking in ebook circumvention software; Sklyarov entered a deferred-prosecution agreement in December 2001.1011

Circumvention software — civil injunction; code treated as speech

  • In Universal City Studios v. Corley, the Second Circuit upheld a DMCA anti-circumvention injunction against distribution of DeCSS code while recognizing that computer code is speech entitled to First Amendment scrutiny.12

Encryption source-code publication — civil constitutional challenges

  • In Bernstein v. DOJ, the Ninth Circuit held that software source code is protected speech and that challenged encryption export regulations constituted an unconstitutional prior restraint.13
  • In Junger v. Daley, the Sixth Circuit held that computer source code is protected by the First Amendment because of its expressiveness.14

Historical Context

Proceedings in this inventory span export-control investigations of encryption software in the 1990s, DMCA anti-circumvention enforcement in the early 2000s, and 2020s OFAC mixer designations plus criminal cases alleging money-transmitting or money-laundering theories against people associated with cryptocurrency privacy software. Outcomes include declination of prosecution, deferred prosecution, civil injunction, SDN designation, guilty plea with prison sentence, trial conviction, and appellate invalidation of an OFAC blocking theory for immutable smart contracts.

Documented theories in this inventory include: (1) conspiracy to operate an unlicensed or crime-proceeds money transmitting business; (2) money laundering; (3) IEEPA / OFAC sanctions violations and SDN designation of mixers; (4) Arms Export Control Act / encryption export investigation (declined); (5) criminal DMCA anti-circumvention trafficking; and (6) civil DMCA injunction with First Amendment scrutiny of code. Authority levels differ (investigation closed; plea; trial conviction; appellate statutory holding; district injunction). This page does not state whether any particular future project is lawful or unlawful.

Relationships

  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY cites SRC-IRS-SAMOURAI-SENTENCE-2025.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to CASE-US-V-RODRIGUEZ.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to CASE-US-V-STORM.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to CASE-NL-V-PERTSEV.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to TOPIC-TORNADO-CASH.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to EVENT-OFAC-BLENDER-2022.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to EVENT-ZIMMERMANN-PGP-INVESTIGATION.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to CASE-US-V-SKLYAROV.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to CASE-BERNSTEIN-V-DOJ.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to CASE-UNIVERSAL-V-CORLEY.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to TOPIC-CODE-AS-SPEECH.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to EVENT-FSB-DUROV-TELEGRAM-2026.
  • TOPIC-DEVELOPER-SOFTWARE-LIABILITY related_to PERSON-PAVEL-DUROV.

Sources

  1. SRC-IRS-SAMOURAI-PLEA-2025: IRS-CI — Samourai Wallet Founders Plead Guilty (July 30, 2025).
  2. SRC-IRS-SAMOURAI-SENTENCE-2025: IRS-CI — Samourai Wallet Founders Sentenced (Nov. 2025).
  3. SRC-DOJ-STORM-INDICTMENT: United States v. Storm / Semenov Indictment (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 2023).
  4. SRC-DOJ-STORM-CONVICTION-2025: SDNY National Security Page — Roman Storm Conviction Note (Aug. 2025).
  5. SRC-PERTSEV-ECLI-2024: ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2024:2069 (May 14, 2024).
  6. SRC-TREASURY-BLENDER-2022: Treasury Blender.io Designation (May 6, 2022).
  7. SRC-TREASURY-TC-AUG-2022: Treasury Tornado Cash Designation (Aug. 8, 2022).
  8. SRC-VAN-LOON-5TH-CIR-JUSTIA: Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury (5th Cir. Nov. 26, 2024).
  9. SRC-ZIMMERMANN-DECLINATION-1996: Zimmermann PGP Investigation Closed (Jan. 1996).
  10. SRC-DOJ-SKLYAROV-INDICTMENT-2001: DOJ First DMCA Indictment (Aug. 28, 2001).
  11. SRC-DOJ-SKLYAROV-AGREE-2001: DOJ Sklyarov Agreement (Dec. 13, 2001).
  12. SRC-CORLEY-LII: Universal City Studios v. Corley source record.
  13. SRC-BERNSTEIN-JUSTIA: Bernstein v. DOJ (Justia).
  14. SRC-JUNGER-CMU: Junger v. Daley Opinion Text (CMU).

Additional sources (not yet cited in footnotes):

Research Debt

  • Add Helix / Bitcoin Fog primary plea and judgment sources (custodial mixer contrast).
  • Add FinCEN FIN-2019-G001 as a statute/guidance source on anonymizing software providers.
  • Add a Verified Facts inventory entry for EVENT-FSB-DUROV-TELEGRAM-2026 once FSB primary materials are available.
  • Human research-editor review before status promotion beyond draft.

Document metadata

  • Last verified: 2026-07-29

  1. SRC-IRS-SAMOURAI-PLEA-2025 — IRS-CI Samourai Wallet Founders Plead Guilty (July 30, 2025). Official government announcement. ↩

  2. SRC-IRS-SAMOURAI-SENTENCE-2025 — IRS-CI Samourai Wallet Founders Sentenced (Nov. 2025). Official government announcement. ↩

  3. SRC-DOJ-STORM-INDICTMENT — United States v. Storm / Semenov Indictment (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 2023). Charging instrument. ↩

  4. SRC-DOJ-STORM-CONVICTION-2025 — SDNY National Security Page — Roman Storm Conviction Note (Aug. 2025). Official USAO summary. ↩

  5. SRC-PERTSEV-ECLI-2024 — ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2024:2069 (May 14, 2024). Primary Dutch judgment. ↩

  6. SRC-TREASURY-BLENDER-2022 — Treasury Blender.io Designation (May 6, 2022). Official government press release. ↩

  7. SRC-TREASURY-TC-AUG-2022 — Treasury Tornado Cash Designation (Aug. 8, 2022). Official government press release. ↩

  8. SRC-VAN-LOON-5TH-CIR-JUSTIA — Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury, No. 23-50669 (5th Cir. Nov. 26, 2024). Primary authority. ↩

  9. SRC-ZIMMERMANN-DECLINATION-1996 — Zimmermann PGP Investigation Closed (Jan. 1996). Republished declination. ↩

  10. SRC-DOJ-SKLYAROV-INDICTMENT-2001 — DOJ First DMCA Indictment (Aug. 28, 2001). Archived official press release. ↩

  11. SRC-DOJ-SKLYAROV-AGREE-2001 — DOJ Sklyarov Agreement (Dec. 13, 2001). Official archived press release. ↩

  12. SRC-CORLEY-LII — Universal City Studios v. Corley (Cornell LII / related Corley source). Primary authority cross-check on CASE page. ↩

  13. SRC-BERNSTEIN-JUSTIA — Bernstein v. DOJ, 176 F.3d 1132 (9th Cir. 1999). Primary authority. ↩

  14. SRC-JUNGER-CMU — Junger v. Daley Opinion Text (CMU). Primary authority. ↩