Crypto

After four weeks of testimony and four days of jury deliberation, a New York federal jury returned a mixed verdict against Roman Storm, co-founder of the Ethereum privacy mixer Tornado Cash. Storm was convicted on one count — conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business (18 U.S.C. § 1960), carrying a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine. The jury deadlocked on the two more serious charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering (max 20 years) and conspiracy to violate IEEPA/North Korea sanctions (max 20 years), resulting in a partial mistrial on those counts. Presiding Judge Katherine Polk Failla noted "there is a lot of fighting left in this case before sentencing."

On August 6, 2025, after a four-week trial and four days of jury deliberations, a Southern District of New York (SDNY) jury found Roman Storm — co-founder of Tornado Cash — guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business (18 U.S.C. § 1960; 18 U.S.C. § 371). The jury deadlocked on the two remaining charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Both deadlocked counts carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years; the conviction carries up to 5 years.

Tornado Cash launched in 2019 as an open-source Ethereum cryptocurrency mixer, allowing users to pool and withdraw assets via smart contracts — making transaction origins virtually untraceable. OFAC sanctioned the protocol in August 2022, alleging it had been used to launder more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency, including hundreds of millions attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group via the March 2022 Ronin bridge hack. The Treasury lifted those sanctions in March 2025. Co-founder Alexey Pertsev was separately arrested in the Netherlands and convicted of money laundering by a Dutch court in May 2024, receiving a 64-month sentence. The Fifth Circuit ruled in November 2024 (Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury) that OFAC had exceeded its statutory authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash's immutable smart contracts.