Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm Faces Pushback From Prosecutors in Post-Trial Motion

Federal prosecutors have pushed back against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s bid for a full acquittal, arguing that the evidence presented during his trial firmly supports the charges against him. In a post-trial filing submitted last Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York said its case clearly showed Storm helped build and control Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing platform sanctioned by the U.S. for facilitating transactions tied to North Korean hackers and other illicit actors.

Storm’s legal team previously filed a motion at the end of September asking District Judge Katherine Polk Failla to overturn not only his conviction for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, but also the two charges on which the jury deadlocked: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions laws. His attorneys argued that the government failed to provide enough evidence to support any of the allegations.

Prosecutors, however, disagreed, stating that testimony and documents introduced during the four-week trial demonstrated Storm’s active role in developing Tornado Cash. They highlighted how Storm and his co-founders made roughly 250 changes to the platform’s user interface between February 2020 and August 2022—modifications that shaped how users interacted with the service. According to the filing, about 96% of Tornado Cash users accessed the platform through this interface during the period when criminal activity was alleged, further underscoring Storm’s involvement and control.

The government also insisted that it had provided sufficient evidence to support the remaining conspiracy charges, urging the judge not to acquit Storm on either count. Storm’s attorneys have until this coming Wednesday to submit their response, setting the stage for the next phase of a closely watched case with major implications for crypto privacy tools and developer liability.