{"id":79824,"date":"2026-04-08T07:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=79824"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:01:32","slug":"us-prosecutors-reject-tornado-cash-founders-defense-amid-push-for-october-retrial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=79824","title":{"rendered":"US Prosecutors Reject Tornado Cash Founder\u2019s Defense Amid Push For October Retrial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutors have pushed back on the Tornado Cash co-founder\u2019s defense, claiming that his arguments for dismissal lack applicability ahead of a crucial hearing later this week.<\/p>\n

DOJ Says Tornado Cash Founder\u2019s Defense Is \u2018Not Applicable\u2019<\/h2>\n

On Tuesday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton sent a letter to Judge Katherine Failla rejecting Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm\u2019s recent letter in support<\/a> of his motion for a judgment of acquittal.<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s response addressed an April 2 motion<\/a> filed by Storm\u2019s defense, which claimed that a 2026 Supreme Court case, Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, supported his pending Rule 29 motion.<\/p>\n

The Cox case involved a civil liability of an internet service provider for its subscribers engaging in copyright infringement. The Supreme Court found that Cox was not contributorily liable for copyright infringement on its users\u2019 accounts, as it did not induce its users\u2019 infringement nor provide a service tailored to infringement.<\/p>\n

In the Tuesday filing<\/a>, the US attorney argued that \u201cThe defendant and the Tornado Cash service are a far cry from Cox,\u201d affirming that \u201cEven if Cox had some applicability here, its reasoning offers no help to the defendant given the strikingly different facts at issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tornado<\/p>\n

\u201cAs set forth in detail in the Government\u2019s response to the defendant\u2019s Rule 29 motion\u2014 and in contrast to Cox\u2019s robust system for responding to infringement\u2014the defendant intentionally implemented mere half-measures that he said were \u2018easy to bypass\u2019 to counter criminal use of the Tornado Cash service, and his purpose in doing so was to distract law enforcement,\u201d the document read.<\/p>\n

Clayton added that Storm\u2019s use of the crypto mixer \u201cwas window dressing at best and outright misdirection at worst,\u201d as there was no evidence that the Tornado Cash founders put in place effective anti-money-laundering (AML) measures.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the US Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022 for failing to impose effective controls to prevent malicious actors from laundering funds through the protocol, including $455 million by the North Korea-linked hacking group, Lazarus Group.<\/p>\n

However, the sanctions were overturned<\/a> in March 2025 after the Court of Appeals ruled in November 2024 that OFAC had overstepped its authority by sanctioning immutable, decentralized smart contracts rather than a legal entity.<\/p>\n

US Prosecutors Seek Roman Storm Retrial<\/h2>\n

The prosecutors\u2019 latest move follows his March letter seeking a retrial of the Tornado Cash co-founder on the two counts where jurors were deadlocked last August. In the letter, Clayton asked<\/a> Judge Failla to schedule a retrial for Roman Storm, pushing for trial dates between October 5 and 12, 2026.<\/p>\n

For context, Storm was detained and indicted following the Tornado Cash sanctions and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.<\/p>\n

The jury found Storm guilty<\/a> of one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, but was unable to come to a unanimous decision regarding the two other charges. Nonetheless, a hung jury does not constitute an acquittal, which opened the door to a potential retrial on those charges.<\/p>\n

In September, Storm filed a motion for acquittal, which asks the trial judge to throw out charges or a verdict because the prosecution\u2019s evidence is legally insufficient. The Tornado Cash founder\u2019s lawyers argued that the government never proved he meant to help bad actors launder money through the platform, which would invalidate the grounds for his conviction based on negligent inaction.<\/p>\n

Now, prosecutors and Storm\u2019s defense attorneys are scheduled to meet on April 9 for an oral argument on the pending Rule 29 motion, which could shape the course of this key legal battle.<\/p>\n

\"tornado<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutors have pushed back on the Tornado Cash co-founder\u2019s defense, claiming that his arguments for dismissal lack applicability ahead of a crucial hearing later this week. DOJ Says Tornado Cash Founder\u2019s Defense Is \u2018Not Applicable\u2019 On Tuesday, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-79824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}