Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have asked Judge Katherine Polk Failla to set a retrial for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm on two charges that a Manhattan jury could not resolve in August 2025: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. The request was filed in March 2026.
Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that the U.S. Department of Justice proposed an early October schedule, naming October 5 or October 12 as possible dates. If Storm is convicted on both unresolved counts, the combined maximum sentence could reach 40 years.
One conviction stands for now, but a Rule 29 motion is still pending
Storm was already convicted in the first trial on conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. That verdict came from the same Manhattan jury in August 2025. It is not the end of that count, though. Storm has a Rule 29 motion before the court seeking to overturn the conviction.
The other two conspiracy charges ended without a unanimous verdict after jurors deliberated for four days. Judge Failla issued an Allen charge, directing the jury to continue discussions, but the panel still remained deadlocked.
Retrial request lands as U.S. agencies refine digital asset language
The filing comes at a time when the Justice Department has adjusted how it describes its approach to digital assets. In April 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo stating that the DOJ does not serve as a digital assets regulator. The memo also said prosecutors should avoid targeting exchanges, wallets, or mixing services for the actions of users.
Separately, the U.S. Treasury discussed privacy tools for digital assets in a report to Congress released in March 2026. Treasury acknowledged that some users depend on mixers to protect financial privacy on public blockchains. That context has kept the Tornado Cash case at the center of a wider dispute over privacy tools, mixers, and the legal exposure of open-source developers.
Defense funding grows as earlier sanctions remain part of the case backdrop
Storm has argued that prosecutors are trying to criminalize open-source software development. In a post on X, he said another trial would impose heavy financial and personal costs. The Free Roman Storm campaign said defense funding had surpassed $5 million by January 2026.
Support has also come from parts of the crypto industry. The Solana Policy Institute donated $500,000 to legal defense funds for Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev. The Ethereum Foundation said privacy-focused funding is supporting their legal defense as well.
The broader timeline still traces back to August 2022, when the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Tornado Cash protocol, alleging billions of dollars in illicit transactions, including activity tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group. An appellate court later ruled those sanctions unlawful and ordered them lifted, adding another layer to the legal fight around the protocol and its developers.