Roman Storm's partial conviction leaves the code-is-speech question unresolved — and a retrial pending

AUG 06 2025 · 12:05

Video: Hung Jury Delivers Mixed Verdict in Roman Storm Tornado Cash Trial Date: 2025-08-06 · Type: failure · Tags: tornado-cash, developer-liability, money-laundering, ofac, sanctions, roman-storm, first-amendment, crypto-wars Guilty on the lesser count; hung on money laundering and sanctions — neither side won, neither lost Roman Storm's trial in S.D.N.Y. before Judge Katherine Polk Failla ran four weeks from July 14 to August 6 2025. The government argued that Storm, as a continuing operational participant in Tornado Cash's development and governance, had conspired to launder money and violate U.S. sanctions by maintaining infrastructure he knew was used by North Korean state hackers (Lazarus Group) and other sanctioned parties. The defense argued that Storm had written open-source code, that others had used it, and that holding a developer criminally responsible for downstream misuse was both legally incorrect and constitutionally untenable under the First Amendment. The jury convicted on Count One — conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business — and deadlocked on the money-laundering and sanctions-violation counts, which carried far heavier potential sentences. The S.D.N.Y., now under Jay Clayton (the former SEC chair, re-installed under the second Trump administration), filed for retrial on the deadlocked charges. As of May 2026, no sentencing date on the convicted count has been set, pending the retrial decision. Storm's co-defendant Roman Semenov, a Russian national, has never been apprehended. The mixed verdict's significance is precisely in what it did not settle. The prosecution's most aggressive theory — that coding Tornado Cash was itself a criminal act — was not vindicated; the defense's most protective claim — that code is categorically speech and developers are categorically immune — was not vindicated either. The Fifth Circuit's *Van Loon* ruling had already pulled away the sanctions architecture that formed one pillar of the criminal case; the partial acquittal on sanctions conspiracy reflects that instability. What remained was a conviction on the regulatory-filing theory — the unlicensed money transmitter — which neither side regards as the ideological crux. The case is a deferral, not a settlement, of the question that has haunted cryptographic infrastructure since Phil Zimmermann shipped PGP: can the state reach through the code to the coder? Facts • Trial: July 14 – August 6 2025, S.D.N.Y., Judge Katherine Polk Failla • Verdict: guilty on Count One (conspiracy to operate unlicensed money-transmitting business); hung on money-laundering and sanctions-violation counts • Maximum on convicted count: 60 months • Retrial motion filed by S.D.N.Y. under Jay Clayton (former SEC chair) on deadlocked counts, late 2025 • Sentencing date: not set as of May 2026 • Co-defendant Roman Semenov: remains at large as of May 2026 • OFAC delisted Tornado Cash March 21 2025, complicating the sanctions-violation count • Van Loon v. Treasury Fifth Circuit ruling (Nov 26 2024) held immutable contract sanctions unlawful Primary Documents • CoinDesk: Roman Storm Guilty of Unlicensed Money Transmitting Conspiracy (Aug 6 2025) — https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/08/06/roman-storm-guilty-of-unlicensed-money-transmitting-conspiracy-in-partial-verdict • DeFi Education Fund: U.S. v. Storm Background and Timeline — https://www.defieducationfund.org/us-v-storm-background-timeline/ • Mayer Brown: The Tornado Cash Trial's Mixed Verdict (August 2025) — https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/08/the-tornado-cash-trials-mixed-verdict-implications-for-developer-liability