The Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm faces a high-stakes showdown as U.S. prosecutors push for an October 2026 retrial on two major unresolved charges.
Tornado Cash co-founder’s legal battle intensifies as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York just filed to retry him on money laundering conspiracy and sanctions violation counts, eyeing early to mid-October 2026 as the new battleground.
In a formal letter Monday to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, the Department of Justice made it clear that they want another crack at Roman Storm on Counts One and Three from the superseding indictment. The government figures the retrial would run about three weeks.
This comes after last summer’s trial, where a jury nailed Storm on the money transmitting conspiracy but hung completely on the bigger-ticket money laundering and sanctions charges. That partial conviction already stands, but these two deadlocked counts could mean up to 40 years behind bars if prosecutors get a guilty verdict this time around.
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Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm hasn’t backed down
He took to X right after the filing, vowing he’ll “never stop fighting for freedom.”
“The 2 counts equal up to 40 years in federal prison for writing open-source code. For a protocol I don’t control. For transactions I never touched. A jury already couldn’t agree this was criminal. But the SDNY prosecutors want to keep trying with the hope of getting a different answer,” he said.
He’s also shared that his legal defense funds are completely tapped out.
The DOJ letter nods to Storm’s upcoming Rule 29 motion for acquittal, set for arguments on April 9, but pushes hard to lock in a retrial date now. They want to dodge any more scheduling headaches down the road.
Prosecutors say they’re ready for a spring trial if needed, but they’re happy to follow the defense’s timeline. They specifically asked the court to kick things off around October 5 or 12, 2026, “to avoid the emergence of further scheduling conflicts and any additional delays.”
Storm’s team had called setting a date this early premature, though they did confirm availability for a three-week trial in late September, early October, or early December windows.
The broader crypto world stands firmly behind the Tornado Cash co-founder. Industry figures argue that building neutral, open-source software shouldn’t equal being on the hook for how others use it. Supporters have poured millions into his defense fund.
Vitalik Buterin himself penned a powerful letter championing privacy tools like Tornado Cash as vital shields against mass data exploitation. The Solana Policy Institute dropped an open letter demanding better legal safeguards for developers in Storm’s position.
Things have shifted noticeably since the case kicked off under the previous administration. Under the current regime, acting assistant attorney general of DOJ Matthew J. Galeotti has publicly said that “writing code” isn’t a crime.
Meanwhile, a new Treasury report to Congress even recognized that crypto mixers can safeguard personal wealth or enable private charitable giving while still flagging risks from bad actors. The 2022 sanctions on Tornado Cash got lifted back in 2025 following a key court ruling.
