After the US treasury department announced sanctions against Tornado Cash, GitHub suspended accounts associated with it including the account of Roman Semenov, co-founder of Tornado Cash.
Semenov also said that despite not being individually named as a Specially Designated National, or SDN, he seemed to be facing consequences from the treasury accusing Tornado Cash of laundering.
As SDNs, individuals and identified firms have their assets blocked and U.S. persons are generally barred from dealing with them. Being identified as an SDN would seemingly prohibit any contact for business purposes as well, which extends to GitHub.
As per a joint statement from OFAC and Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, prohibited transactions could also include downloading a software patch from a sanctioned entity.
Also Read: US Slaps Sanctions on Virtual Currency Mixer Tornado Cash
A GitHub account that previously hosted code tied to Tornado Cash returned a “page not found” error, as did the website linked to the project. Emails related to Tornado Cash are also disabled by GitHub.
Within hours, the fans and supporters of the service and founders of the popular protocol Tornado Cash flooded Twitter, calling the move unjust. Even Semenov called suspending his account “a bit illogical”.
However, U.S. residents have been effectively barred from using Tornado Cash, given it has failed to impose effective controls to stop laundering funds for malicious illicit activities.
