U.S. Jury Splits on Tornado Cash Co-Founder Roman Storm Verdict DOJ May Retry Serious Charges

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) may still pursue charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and to violate North Korean sanctions against Roman Storm, co-founder of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing protocol, following a partial mistrial in a high-profile case that concluded on August 6, 2025 [2]. A federal jury in Manhattan found Storm guilty of one count—conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business—but could not reach a consensus on the two more serious charges. The mixed outcome means the DOJ has the option to retry the unresolved counts, depending on its assessment of the likelihood of securing a conviction [3].

The prosecution argued that Tornado Cash, which anonymizes the flow of cryptocurrency, was used to launder over $1 billion in stolen funds, including proceeds from hacking operations linked to the North Korean group Lazarus. Federal prosecutors maintained that Storm was aware of these risks and continued to support the platform’s operation [3]. Storm’s defense team countered that the protocol is noncustodial, meaning it does not control or store user funds, and therefore should not be treated like a traditional financial institution. They emphasized that developers should not be criminally liable for how users choose to employ their code in decentralized systems [3].

Legal experts have highlighted the broader implications of the case, particularly for the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at Variant Fund, warned that the legal standard applied to Storm could similarly threaten DeFi developers, given the broad scope of federal money transmission laws. He described the partial verdict as “a sad day for DeFi,” noting the chilling effect such rulings could have on innovation and user privacy [2]. Another attorney, Zack Shapiro, called the charges “draconian” but noted that the absence of immediate prison time for the more severe counts offered some relief [2].

The DeFi community has reacted with concern over the potential precedent. The DeFi Education Fund has warned that the conviction could encourage regulators to criminalize open-source developers for actions beyond their control. The ambiguity in how courts interpret liability in decentralized systems is evident in the jury’s inability to agree on the most serious charges [3].

Roman Storm has announced plans to appeal the guilty verdict, with his legal team arguing that applying money transmission laws to noncustodial protocols is inappropriate. The appeal will focus on whether developers can be held responsible for the misuse of their platforms in the decentralized finance ecosystem [3].

The case aligns with a broader regulatory crackdown on privacy-focused crypto tools. In August, the co-founders of Samourai Wallet also pleaded guilty to similar charges, signaling the U.S. government’s increasing focus on tools that obscure financial traceability [3].

Sources:

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/tornado-cash-roman-storm-trial-partial-mistrial-2025-8

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-06/tornado-cash-co-founder-storm-guilty-in-crypto-laundering-case

[3] https://www.theblock.co/post/364948/tornado-cash-creator-roman-storm-found-guilty-on-money-transmitting-charge-but-not-guilty-on-sanctions-charge-inner-city-press

[4] https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/08/06/roman-storm-guilty-of-unlicensed-money-transmitting-conspiracy-in-partial-verdict

[5] https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/storm-jurors-reach-split-verdict-in-criminal-trial/