The US authorities can nonetheless retry Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm on counts of cash laundering and violating sanctions resulting from a hung jury, in response to attorneys.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) will resolve within the coming days if it needs to retry these costs in a brand new trial,” Jake Chervinsky, chief authorized officer at enterprise capital agency Variant Fund, wrote on X.
Storm was convicted on one felony depend for his involvement with Tornado Cash on Wednesday. The jury discovered him responsible of conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise.
However, jury members didn’t attain a unanimous verdict on the fees of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and conspiracy to violate North Korea sanctions.
Attorney Aaron Brogan informed Cointelegraph that Storm’s verdict nonetheless carries broader authorized implication for decentralized protocols.
“The drawback with this broad utility of federal cash transmitter legislation is that, frankly, many in DeFi fear they might apply as strongly to them as to Tornado Cash. And whereas the federal government in all probability gained’t deliver costs in opposition to all of DeFi, the broad publicity offers them a robust stick in any negotiations.”
The case’s potential for lasting implications has drawn shut consideration from the crypto trade and privateness advocates. Attorneys say the precedent-setting trial is essential for digital privateness and will have a big affect on open-source software program builders within the United States.
Related: SEC’s Peirce defends transaction privateness as Tornado Cash verdict looms
Attorneys react to the partial verdict
The US can nonetheless deliver Roman Storm again to court docket on the unresolved costs of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and conspiracy to violate North Korea sanctions. The choice would rely upon a number of elements, together with the probability of securing a conviction in a second trial.
“If the Trump administration needs the USA to be the crypto capital of the world, then the DOJ should not be allowed to retry the 2 deadlocked costs,” Chervinsky mentioned.
Chervinsky described the partial verdict as “a tragic day for DeFi,” warning that part 1960 underneath the US Code, which prosecutors used to cost Storm with working an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise, represents an existential risk to decentralized finance functions.
“All in all, this results in a reasonably miserable conclusion,” lawyer Zack Shapiro wrote on X, however mentioned that it was good the “draconian” jail sentences for the cash laundering costs had been off the desk for now.
I believe it is affordable to conclude that the federal government won’t retry the mistried counts of cash laundering given the political posturing
A US court docket overturned the Tornado Cash sanctions in January 2025, handing decentralized crypto and privacy-preserving protocols a significant authorized victory.
The sanctions had been imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2022, accusing the crypto mixing service of cash laundering.
DOJ officers claimed the Tornado Cash protocol helped launder over $7 billion in crypto between 2019 and 2022 and was instrumental to North Korean state-sanctioned hackers laundering funds stolen via hacking.
Magazine: Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to construct protected and authorized coin mixers
