Tornado Cash | Crypto

Roman Storm is scheduled to appear in a New York courtroom for his criminal trial on July 14, facing money laundering and conspiracy charges. Roman Storm, one of the co-founders and developers behind the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, appeared in a video interview as his US criminal trial is expected to begin in less than two weeks. In an interview released Wednesday by Crypto In America, Storm said his legal team intended to address at trial the allegations that he had personally profited from illicit funds through his role at Tornado Cash. However, he declined to say whether he would testify in his own defense over charges of money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter, and conspiracy to violate US sanctions. Read more

Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev received renewed support from the crypto community on their respective trials for deploying the open-source code behind the mixer. The Ethereum Foundation on June 12 donated $500,000 to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s legal defense. It said it will match another $750,000 from public contributors as the […] The post Tornado Cash support: Ethereum Foundation pledges $1M to Storm’s defense, entities boost Pertsev appeal appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's defense cited the same set of FinCEN documents used by the Samourai Wallet developers' legal team. Attorneys for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm filed a motion asking the court to reconsider the motion to dismiss the case due to the prosecution withholding exculpatory evidence in the form of communications with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dating back to 2023. According to a May 16 letter from Storm's attorneys to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, the FinCEN documents show that non-custodial crypto mixers do not fall under the legal definition of a "money transmitting business" and that prosecutors have known this since at least 2023. Despite having knowledge of the FinCEN guidance on crypto mixers, state prosecutors still proceeded with cases against the Samourai Wallet developers and Tornado Cash, the attorneys alleged. Read more

US government charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm were slightly pared back after a memo said the Justice Department would end most crypto cases. US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month. Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge. “After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,” Clayton wrote. Read more

The US Department of Justice does not intend to drop its federal criminal charges against Tornado Cash developer and co-founder Roman Storm, Decrypt reported on May 15, citing sources within the DOJ. The DOJ’s decision to proceed comes despite an internal memo circulated last month signaling a potential shift in how the agency handles cases […] The post DOJ to press on with criminal charges against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Tornado Cash is designed to make transactions private, but allegations of money laundering led to US sanctions, though they were lifted in March 2025. Tornado Cash is a decentralized, non-custodial crypto mixer designed to enhance transaction privacy on public blockchains. It uses smart contracts and zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to conceal the onchain link between the sender and receiver of a transaction. Launched by Roman Storm and Roman Semenov on Ethereum in 2019, Tornado Cash allows users to send and receive cryptocurrency anonymously, without exposing their wallet history. Unlike centralized mixers, Tornado Cash operates entirely onchain through immutable smart contracts, meaning no central party controls the funds.  Read more