Roman Storm Trial Jury Begins Deliberations on Money Laundering Charges

The jury in the high-profile trial of Roman Storm, the developer behind the Ethereum-based Tornado Cash mixer, is set to begin deliberations after both prosecution and defense teams concluded their closing arguments on Wednesday. The case, unfolding in a Manhattan courtroom, centers on whether Storm and his co-founders knowingly facilitated money laundering for cybercriminals, including state-sponsored hackers linked to North Korea, by creating a platform that helped obscure the origins of over $1 billion in illicit cryptocurrency transactions [1].

Prosecutors painted Storm as an active participant in a criminal enterprise, emphasizing that the Tornado Cash team received numerous reports from victims seeking help, to which they allegedly responded with misleading or no responses. Despite acknowledging that the mixer’s pools were immutable, they argued that Storm had the technical ability to make changes—such as implementing a user registry—that could have limited the platform’s misuse by hackers. The government accused him of using the platform’s privacy features as a "cover story" for profiting from criminal activity [1].

Storm’s defense team, however, rejected the government’s narrative, asserting that the prosecution selectively used evidence to paint an unfair picture of their client. They highlighted that Storm had openly discussed Tornado Cash as a decentralized finance (DeFi) project, and that he had been transparent with his bank about his work. Defense attorney David Patton stressed that Tornado Cash was developed in the open, emerging from a 2019 ETHBoston hackathon, and that its purpose was to meet a genuine demand for privacy within the Ethereum community. Any attempt to introduce a user registry, as suggested by a prosecution expert witness, would have undermined the very privacy that the platform was designed to provide [1].

The legal battle has raised broader questions about the legal and ethical boundaries of decentralized technology. Prosecutors argue that developers cannot ignore the potential misuse of their tools when they become widely adopted for criminal purposes. The defense, on the other hand, contends that building open-source software for privacy does not make a developer complicit in crimes committed by others using that software.

Storm faces three felony charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, and conspiracy to violate international sanctions. If convicted on all counts, he could receive up to 45 years in prison [1].

The jury is now tasked with weighing the evidence and the competing narratives presented by both sides. Judge Katherine Polk Failla has instructed the panel before sending them off to deliberate, bringing a pivotal chapter in the trial to a close [1].

Source: [1] [Roman Storm Jury Set to Begin Deliberations as Money Laundering Trial Draws to Close](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/07/30/jury-set-to-begin-deliberations-as-roman-storm-s-money-laundering-trial-draws-to-close)