NEW YORK — Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm has been found guilty of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, a Manhattan jury decided Wednesday.
The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the remaining charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate international sanctions, despite four days of deliberations following a three-week trial. A sentencing date has yet to be established, and it’s currently uncertain if prosecutors will choose to retry Storm on the unresolved charges. Prosecutors indicated they will discuss this internally.
Storm was arrested in 2023 and charged with assisting hackers and other cyber criminals, including North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group, in laundering over $1 billion in illicit funds through Tornado Cash, the crypto privacy tool he helped create.
Following the verdict, prosecutors requested that Storm, who is currently out on bail, be remanded to prison to await sentencing. They argued that “he is from Russia” (Storm was born in Kazakhstan, is a U.S. citizen, and has lived in Seattle for over a decade), “has advised people how to cheat the immigration system,” and possesses the financial means to flee the country, according to reports from RialCenter.
Storm’s lawyers countered, asserting that he is not a flight risk. Keri Axel, a partner at Waymaker and one of Storm’s attorneys, told District Judge Katherine Polke Failla of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) that Storm has surrendered his passport and has strong family ties, including joint custody of a five-year-old daughter in Washington state and extended family in Sacramento, California.
Failla ultimately sided with Storm’s legal team, stating that she did not believe he was a flight risk since he was only convicted on one charge.
“He may appeal; he has every incentive to stay and fight,” Failla noted. “He is not a flight risk, given the size of the bond. There’s a lot of fighting left in this case before sentencing, and I think Mr. Storm will remain for it.”
This verdict comes just a week after the developers of Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin-focused privacy tool similar to Tornado Cash, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill changed their initial ‘not guilty’ pleas after reaching a deal with prosecutors that resulted in the dismissal of more serious money laundering conspiracy charges.
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