The trial of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm adhered to legal protocols, and federal prosecutors argue that the presiding judge should not consider acquitting him of all charges.
In a post-trial filing dated last Wednesday, attorneys from the Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York opposed Storm’s motion for acquittal, asserting that they provided sufficient evidence proving he created and controlled Tornado Cash, the crypto mixing service previously sanctioned by the U.S. for its connections to North Korean and other illicit activities.
At the end of September, Storm’s legal team submitted a post-trial motion claiming that District Judge Katherine Polk Failla should acquit him of all charges—not just the conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter for which he was convicted, but also the two unresolved charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions law. In this procedural filing, the defense contended that prosecutors lacked adequate evidence to warrant a conviction on any count.
In the filing from Wednesday, prosecutors maintained that their evidence clearly indicated Storm’s role as a co-founder of Tornado Cash and that he developed features he knew would facilitate criminal activities.
“The defendant’s control was neither passive nor incidental: he and his co-conspirators changed the UI approximately 250 times between February 26, 2020, and August 8, 2022, controlling the means by which the vast majority of users accessed the Tornado Cash Service. During the charged time frame, at least 96 percent of Tornado Cash users accessed the service through the UI,” the filing stated, referencing portions of the transcript from the four-week trial.
The filing further argued that prosecutors had enough evidence to support their conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions charges, and that the judge should not acquit on either of those.
Storm’s attorneys are due to file a response by this upcoming Wednesday.
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