- Roman Storm, a co-founder of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, was convicted in a Manhattan court of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
- The jury remained deadlocked on more serious charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and violate US sanctions, so there was no verdict on those counts.
- The case has sparked debate about whether developers can be held criminally liable for code they write, with many pro-crypto voices arguing that Storm is being persecuted for creating open-source software.
A Manhattan jury has found Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmittal business, a felony that could land him up to five years in prison.
The verdict, delivered Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, followed four days of jury deliberation. The panel remained deadlocked on two other charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate US sanctions on North Korea, resulting in no verdict on those counts.
Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
Related: Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Sentenced to 64 Months in Prison for Money Laundering by Dutch Judges
The Dangers of Writing Code
The way prosecutors acted in this case is by leaning heavily on mere testimonies from FBI and IRS agents, as well as hackers, who claimed Storm had the technical capacity to implement controls that could have curbed illicit use of the Tornado Cash protocol.
They argued that he simply chose “not to intervene”.
But the defense countered with expert witnesses, including Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon and NAXO co-founder Matthew Edman, who challenged the notion that Storm had meaningful control over the open-source mixer. They and many other pro-crypto voices have stated that Storm is being persecuted simply for writing code.
As if that weren’t enough, the same prosecutors are also looking into filing charges against Dragonfly Capital, which is an investor in Tornado Cash, as reported.
Storm was first indicted in August 2023. He has maintained his innocence throughout the case and remained out on bail following his arraignment. Moreover, he requested over US$500K (AU$768K) in funding to cover his legal expenses, which rose to nearly US$4M (AU$6.15M), as Crypto News Australia reported.
All in all, over US$3M (AU$4.61M) was raised for his defense, with major contributions from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Paradigm’s Matt Huang, and the Ethereum Foundation.
Judge Katherine Failla, who presided over the case, reportedly referenced other high-profile crypto cases during the trial, including those of Sam Bankman-Fried, Nathaniel Chastain, and Karl Greenwood, all of whom received prison sentences.
Related: Chainlink Unveils Real-Time Data Streams for U.S. Stocks and ETFs, Fueling DeFi’s Expansion Into Traditional Finance
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