Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm to go on trial in July
Date: 2025-05-16 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
Crypto mixer Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm will be at the center of a trial in July 2025. According to a statement from U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, some of the charges brought earlier will remain in force, but one of them has been decided to be excluded from the case.
Prosecutors accuse Storm of participating in a criminal conspiracy to launder money, as well as operating an unlicensed funds transfer platform and violating U.S. sanctions. The trial itself will begin on July 14. A Justice Department spokesman said the charges relate to knowingly participating in a money laundering scheme, circumventing sanctions, and transferring funds that were knowingly obtained illegally.
However, the authorities decided to drop one point — conspiracy to conduct unlicensed money transmission activities. As Coin Center CEO Peter Van Valkenburg noted, this point contradicted FinCEN's 2019 clarifications. The Treasury Department documents indicated that platforms without a custodial function, such as Tornado Cash, do not fall under the definition of money transmitters.
Recall that in 2022, OFAC included Tornado Cash in the sanctions list, accusing the service of participating in the laundering of more than $7 billion in illegal proceeds. Soon after, another developer of the project, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested. In 2024, he was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for laundering $1.2 billion, becoming the first programmer convicted of using his code by third parties for criminal purposes.
In addition to Storm, charges were also brought against Roman Semenov — in absentia. Storm himself was arrested in mid-2023, but was later released on bail of $2 million. He denies his guilt.
Notably, in November 2024, a US court found sanctions against Tornado Cash illegal. The judges ruled that OFAC had exceeded its authority by imposing restrictions on decentralized smart contracts. In March 2025, Tornado Cash was removed from the sanctions list, and in February Pertsev was released under house arrest and is preparing to appeal his sentence.
