Case Recap: Roman Storm Faces Retrial, Up to 40 Years
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have asked a judge to schedule a retrial for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm on two criminal counts where jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision last August. The charges — conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions — carry the heaviest penalties. A conviction on both could expose Storm to as much as 40 years in federal prison. In their letter to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, prosecutors proposed a retrial start in early or mid-October, estimated to last about three weeks. Storm remains free on bail.
The first trial yielded a mixed outcome: Storm was convicted of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, but the jury deadlocked on the two more serious counts. Prosecutors argued that the decentralized crypto mixer known as Tornado Cash enabled over $1 billion in illicit transactions, including activity tied to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group. Storm's defense maintains that he simply wrote open-source code and cannot control how it is used after deployment.
Shifting Policy Winds in Washington
The retrial request arrives during a notable shift in the federal government's posture toward digital assets. Last year, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche circulated a memo stating that the Justice Department “is not a digital assets regulator” and instructed prosecutors to avoid cases that impose regulatory frameworks through criminal charges against platforms, wallets, and similar infrastructure. The memo also cautioned against targeting developers for the conduct of users who interact with decentralized tools.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has softened its language around privacy tools on public blockchains. In a March 2026 report to Congress under the GENIUS Act, Treasury acknowledged that digital asset mixers can serve legitimate purposes, such as shielding sensitive financial information, including personal wealth, business payments, charitable donations, and consumer spending patterns. This marks a departure from earlier aggressive enforcement actions and highlights internal divisions over how to treat privacy protocols.
Making Code a Crime? Storm's Defense and the Open-Source Dilemma
Roman Storm helped create Tornado Cash in 2019 as a privacy protocol for the Ethereum network. Unlike custodial mixers, the protocol operates through smart contracts rather than a centralized service operator. Federal authorities have argued the tool facilitated more than $1 billion in illicit transactions, including activity linked to the Lazarus Group. Following news of the retrial request, Storm posted on X: “A jury of 12 Americans heard four weeks of evidence and deadlocked. No verdict on money laundering. No verdict on sanctions violations. The government’s response? Try again to make writing code a crime.”
Storm's legal team contends that the government is attempting to criminalize open-source software development, a position that has drawn support from privacy advocates and crypto industry groups. The case is widely viewed as one of the most consequential legal battles over the boundaries of software development and criminal liability in the cryptocurrency space, with implications for developers of decentralized protocols worldwide.