Tornado Cash Co-Founder Roman Storm Faces Retrial as Federal Prosecutors Push Forward
Federal prosecutors under Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton are requesting an early October retrial date for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm on two charges where the jury was unable to reach consensus.
Federal prosecutors are pursuing a retrial for Roman Storm, co-founder of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, following a jury's inability to unanimously agree on two criminal charges during his trial last year.
Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton submitted a letter to federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla on Monday requesting a trial date for Storm to face retrial on charges involving conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions.
The correspondence requested the court schedule the retrial to commence on or around Oct. 5 to 12, with expectations that the proceedings would span three weeks. Prosecutors indicated their readiness to move forward with the retrial as soon as spring, specifically between March and May, however Storm's legal team stated their unavailability until late 2026.
Last August, a jury found Storm guilty of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, however they remained deadlocked regarding the money laundering and sanctions violation conspiracy charges, creating the opportunity for prosecutors to pursue those charges again in a retrial.
Storm had entered a not guilty plea and subsequently requested Judge Polk Failla in October to acquit him of the money transmitting charge, with his argument centered on prosecutors' failure to demonstrate he had intent to assist bad actors in utilizing Tornado Cash.
In his letter, Clayton noted that Storm's legal representatives informed prosecutors that establishing a new trial date would be premature given the pending acquittal motion, which is not expected to be resolved until early April, when oral arguments are scheduled.
Prosecutors hope for "different answer," says Storm
In a post on X, Storm stated that the two counts the government intends to retry him on carry potential consequences of "up to 40 years in federal prison. For writing open-source code. For a protocol I don't control. For transactions I never touched."
"A jury already couldn't agree this was criminal. But the SDNY [Southern District of New York] prosecutors want to keep trying with the hope of getting a different answer," he added.
The legal chief at the DeFi Education Fund, a crypto advocacy organization, Amanda Tuminelli, characterized the Justice Department's decision to pursue a retrial of Storm as "incredibly disappointing."
"Despite failing to convince a jury the first time around, despite making obvious mistakes like calling irrelevant witnesses and not understanding the forensic analysis of their own blockchain evidence, and despite multiple legal and logical fallacies to their allegations of third-party dev liability, the SDNY will retry Roman Storm," she added.
The letter from Clayton arrives at a time when a report submitted by the US Treasury to Congress this month recognized certain lawful applications of crypto mixers, including usage by individuals who employ such services "to maintain more privacy in their consumer spending habits."
In his post on X, Storm also highlighted that US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had released a memo in April stating that the Justice Department "is not a digital assets regulator," and the agency would "no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets."
"Same country, same DOJ — just filed to retry me anyway," Storm said.