Tornado Cash Co-Founder Roman Storm Heading For December Trial

After his motion to dismiss the charges was turned down by a New York judge on September 27, Tornado Cash’s Roman Storm will face trial in December for money laundering and sanctions violations, a decision criticized by many in the cryptocurrency space.

Tornado Cash Founder Roman Storm Will Face Trial

Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York rejected Storm’s attempt to dismiss the charges, arguing that his role as a developer did not absolve him of responsibility for the blockchain-based crimes associated with Tornado Cash.

Storm’s legal team maintained that he was merely a developer and should not be held accountable for the platform’s actions, which operated as a decentralized financial entity.

Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm could be looking at 45 years if convicted on all charges! 😳

Judge Failla isn't cutting him any slack, saying the DOJ's case is strong.

Yikes—crypto dev life really isn’t for the faint of heart these days! #TornadoCash

— Professor Crypto (@profcryptotalks) September 27, 2024

“This court cannot accept Mr. Storm’s narrative that he is being prosecuted merely for writing code,” Judge Failla stated during the ruling.

This case stems from an August 2023 indictment that alleges Tornado Cash executed $1 billion in money laundering transactions, including hundreds of millions of dollars laundered for North Korea’s state-sponsored hacking group, the Lazarus Group.

The group is notorious for its large-scale attacks on the digital asset sector, with the stolen cryptocurrency used to fund North Korea’s ballistic missile programs.

Alongside fellow Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Semenov, Storm also faces a charge of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. If convicted, Storm could face a maximum of 45 years in prison.

“While publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew that they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.

“When it became clear that a sanctioned North Korean cybercrime organization was using the platform to launder hundreds of millions of dollars derived from cyber heists, Storm and Semenov turned a blind eye to the illicit activity and made public representations that they were compliant with sanctions laws,” added FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith.

Roman Storm Case Draws Criticism from Crypto Community

The decision to proceed with the Tornado Cash trial has been met with pushback from members of the cryptocurrency community. Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at the crypto venture capital firm Variant, criticized Failla’s ruling on X.

“Judge Failla’s ruling denying @rstormsf’s motion to dismiss the indictment is an assault on the freedom of software developers everywhere,” Chervinsky said. “This will go down in history as a perversion of law and a travesty of justice.”

Others in the crypto legal community echoed this sentiment. Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer at the DeFi Education Fund, also voiced her disapproval on social media, listing several quotes from the New York judge that members of the crypto community may find troubling.

In the US v. Storm (Tornado Cash) hearing just now, the court rejected the arguments in Storm's motion to dismiss as a matter of law and heavily punted what she said were factual issues for trial ("To the extent Storm is asking me to decide a controverted issue of fact, I am not… https://t.co/enpBby3Gue

— Amanda Tuminelli (@amandatums) September 26, 2024

Scheduled for December 2 in New York, Roman Storm’s trial is anticipated to capture the attention of both legal experts and cryptocurrency advocates due to its potential to impact regulations.