Tornado Cash Dev Roman Storm’s Criminal Case Will Proceed to Trial, NY Judge Orders

Judge Katherine Polk Failla from the Southern District of New York (SDNY) refused to throw out the criminal charges against Storm. She has prepared an extensive explanation for her decision and is currently reading it aloud in court. Meanwhile, she’s also working on another part of that explanation to address a request to obtain specific documents.

Alongside Roman Semenov, another Tornado Cash developer, Storm was accused of three offenses last August, related to their activities with the privacy mixer. These charges include conspiring to perform money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business without permission, and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Powers Act (essentially bypassing international sanctions).

It is alleged that Tornado Cash and its creators are consciously aiding in the concealment of over $1 billion, with a significant portion, approximately hundreds of millions, traced back to the notorious cybercrime group from North Korea, known as the Lazarus Group.

In response to the accusations against him, Storm maintains his innocence by denying all charges. In a document submitted for dismissal in March, Storm’s legal team asserted that he merely developed Tornado Cash’s software – any criminal activities linked to this software post-development, they contend, were beyond his control.

In my role as an analyst, I can affirm that Failla has rejected another motion by Storm in this case – a request to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to share documents from Dutch authorities. These documents are related to the recent conviction of Alexey Pertsev, another Tornado Cash developer, for money laundering offenses.

The judge determined that Storm’s team failed to prove the Dutch authorities’ material was pertinent. He deemed their arguments as being overly “conjectural” or speculative.

She stated, “Indeed, the defense contends they can only use words like ‘may’ because they’re unsure about the contents of those materials. However, there needs to be some evidence that these materials, not just hypothetically, are actually pertinent to the case at hand.

The impending trial for Storm is scheduled to start in New York on December 2nd, with an estimated duration of two weeks. If found guilty on all charges, he could potentially receive a prison sentence of up to 45 years.