Crypto Developer Guilty of Criminal Charge

 

“A co-founder of Tornado Cash, a digital-currency "mixing" service that was used by North Korean cybercriminals to launder stolen funds, was convicted of one of the three criminal charges he had faced, after a three-week trial in New York federal court.

 

A jury on Wednesday found Roman Storm guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, a disappointment for crypto proponents who had backed the software developer's defense. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

 

But the jury failed to reach agreement on two other, more serious charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. Both charges could have resulted in 20-year prison sentences.

 

"We are grateful the jury did not convict Roman for violating sanctions or laundering money," said Brian Klein, a partner at law firm Waymaker and one of Storm's attorneys.

 

"There are serious legal issues with the sole remaining count involving unlicensed money transmission," Klein added. "We will not stop fighting for Roman and expect him to be fully vindicated."

 

"Roman Storm and Tornado Cash provided a service for North Korean hackers and other criminals to move and hide more than $1 billion of dirty money," Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, whose office brought the case against Storm, said.

 

A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on whether prosecutors would seek a retrial for the two counts on which the jury deadlocked.

 

Storm, 36 years old, walked out of court after the verdict, which followed several days of deliberations. His sentencing date hasn't yet been set.

 

Although he avoided conviction on the most serious counts, the jury's decision on the money-transmitting charge upset crypto proponents, who feared it could set a dangerous precedent for the digital-currency industry and developers working in similar areas. "This is a terrible outcome for Roman and for all of crypto," Jake Chervinsky, a lawyer for crypto investment fund Variant, posted on X.

 

The mixed result of the Storm trial was a rare setback for an industry that has enjoyed one success after another under President Trump. His administration has brought the passage of the first major piece of crypto legislation and an abrupt end to many of the lawsuits that the Securities and Exchange Commission filed against crypto firms under President Joe Biden.

 

Prominent crypto investors had contributed to Storm's legal-defense fund and industry groups had submitted briefs supporting his arguments.

 

Storm's lawyers argued that he created a neutral piece of software and wasn't responsible for how criminals used it. They said Tornado Cash ran autonomously on the internet and, aside from a web-based "front end," existed outside of Storm's control once it was deployed.

 

The Justice Department told a simpler story: that Storm knowingly created and promoted a money-laundering tool used by scammers and hackers.

 

Prosecutors presented evidence that criminals repeatedly used Tornado Cash to launder crypto funds stolen in scams and hacks. These included the theft of more than $500 million from online game Axie Infinity in 2023, which federal investigators attributed to Lazarus Group, a U.S.-sanctioned North Korean cybercrime organization.” [1]

 

1. Crypto Developer Guilty of Criminal Charge. Osipovich, Alexander.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 07 Aug 2025: B1.