Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have formally asked U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla to schedule a retrial for Roman Storm, co-founder of the crypto mixing protocol Tornado Cash.
Key Takeaways
Federal prosecutors have requested a retrial for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, proposing October 2026 dates
Storm faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on money laundering and sanctions charges
The original trial ended in a partial verdict — guilty on one count, deadlocked on two others
OFAC has since lifted certain Tornado Cash sanctions, adding legal tension to the ongoing case
The government is proposing a start date of either October 5 or October 12, 2026, with proceedings expected to last approximately three weeks.
The retrial would cover two of the original three charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. At the conclusion of Storm’s first trial in August 2025, the jury returned a guilty verdict on a single count — conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business — but failed to reach a unanimous decision on the remaining, more serious charges, resulting in a partial mistrial.
A $40-Year Exposure and a $1 Billion Allegation
If convicted at retrial, Storm faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison. Prosecutors allege that Tornado Cash was used to launder more than $1 billion in illicit funds, with hundreds of millions traced to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, a state-linked cybercrime operation sanctioned by the U.S. government.
Storm’s legal team has pushed back against the timeline, arguing that scheduling a retrial is premature. The defense has a Rule 29 motion for acquittal — challenging the existing conviction — pending before the court, with oral arguments set for early April 2026. Defense attorneys contend the motion should be resolved before any new trial date is locked in.
Industry Backlash and a Shifting Regulatory Tide
The case has drawn sustained attention from the broader cryptocurrency industry. Supporters, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and the DeFi Education Fund, have framed the prosecution as an attack on open-source software development, arguing Storm wrote code — not criminal infrastructure. More than $4.7 million has been raised toward his defense, though Storm has publicly stated those funds are now largely depleted following the first trial.
Legal observers have noted a growing tension between the prosecution and recent shifts in regulatory posture. A U.S. Treasury report published in March 2026 acknowledged that crypto mixers have legitimate uses, including consumer privacy protection. A separate DOJ memo stated the agency does not consider itself a “digital assets regulator” — language that critics argue sits uncomfortably alongside an active federal prosecution over a privacy protocol.
Advocacy groups have called on the Trump administration to intervene and drop the charges entirely, characterizing the case as a holdover from what they describe as the Biden administration’s adversarial stance toward the crypto sector.
Meanwhile, the legal landscape around Tornado Cash itself has shifted. The Office of Foreign Assets Control reportedly lifted certain sanctions on the protocol following a Fifth Circuit ruling that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts do not constitute “property” under U.S. sanctions law and therefore cannot be designated in the same manner as a person or entity.
Storm is not the only co-founder facing legal consequences. Alexey Pertsev was convicted in the Netherlands in May 2024 and sentenced to 64 months in prison. He is currently appealing that ruling.
The retrial, if confirmed, would take place against a markedly different political and regulatory backdrop than Storm’s original proceedings — a fact his defense team is expected to press at every opportunity.
