Anonymous individual exploits HECO Chain to anonymize $145M worth of Ether using Tornado Cash within 8 days.

A cyber criminal exploiting the HECO Chain has successfully transferred and concealed nearly 40,392 Ether (ETH) using the crypto-mixing protocol Tornado Cash over the course of eight days. PeckShield, a crypto investigator, revealed that the HECO Chain exploiter made 19 outbound transfers to Tornado Cash addresses in an attempt to make approximately $145.7 million worth of stolen Ether untraceable. The majority of the funds were sent to a single Tornado Cash address, with a separate transaction of 0.2 ETH worth $699 sent to a different address. In the largest transaction, the HECO Chain exploiter transferred 11,300 ETH worth roughly $39.5 million in one go. Hackers often utilize Tornado Cash to anonymize the ownership of their stolen funds.
On March 21, an account connected to a $24 million Rocket Pool hack from September 2023 sent 3,700 ETH to Tornado Cash with the same intention. Elliptic, a crypto analytics firm, reported that hackers from North Korea’s Lazarus Group resumed using Tornado Cash to launder funds stolen from hacks on March 13. Tornado Cash was previously sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department in August 2022 for allegedly facilitating the laundering of over $1 billion in illicit funds, including money linked to the Lazarus Group.
Roman Storm, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, pleaded not guilty in September 2023 before a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He, along with his alleged co-conspirator Roman Semenov, faced charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. On March 10, the Arbitrum DAO withdrew a proposal to fund the legal defense costs of the Tornado Cash co-founders. The exact reasons for this withdrawal remain unclear. Cointelegraph reached out to DK, a pseudonymous delegate leading the initiative, for further clarification but did not receive a response.