- US prosecutors will retry Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm after a jury deadlocked on major charges in his first trial last July.
- Storm was convicted on one lesser charge but faces retrial on conspiracy to launder money and evade sanctions, each carrying up to 20 years.
- The decision comes shortly after the US Treasury acknowledged crypto mixers can serve legitimate privacy purposes.
- Storm’s defense argues he is being prosecuted for writing open-source code for a protocol he did not control.
- A recent related ruling from the judge overseeing the case dismissed a lawsuit against Uniswap creators for third-party misconduct.
Federal prosecutors in New York are seeking a second trial for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, aiming to secure convictions on severe charges that a previous jury could not agree upon. This move follows a trial last July where jurors were split on counts of conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to evade sanctions.
Storm was, however, convicted on the lesser charge of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He decried the decision on social media, stating, “A jury already couldn’t agree this was criminal.”
Prosecutors had argued that privacy was a “cover story” for the service, which they claimed primarily hid dirty money. This retrial push arrives less than a week after the US Treasury Department acknowledged that crypto mixers can have legitimate privacy uses.
Consequently, the legal battle now hinges on a motion by Storm’s defense to dismiss all charges, with a hearing set for April 9. Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who is overseeing the case, recently showed skepticism towards holding protocol creators liable for third-party actions.
In a related ruling this month, Failla dismissed a class-action lawsuit targeting the creators of Uniswap. She stated plaintiffs could not hold defendants liable for the misconduct of unidentified third-party token issuers.
This logic mirrors the defense argument from Storm’s first trial. His attorney noted that while the tool was useful to criminals, so are many everyday items like mobile phones. Prosecutors have requested the new trial begin in October.
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