A federal court in New York has approved the government’s pretrial schedule for Roman Storm’s retrial, moving two unresolved Tornado Cash charges toward a second jury trial this fall. The Sou
A federal court in New York has approved the government’s pretrial schedule for Roman Storm’s retrial, moving two unresolved Tornado Cash charges toward a second jury trial this fall.
The Southern District of New York plans to retry Storm on conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. Jurors failed to reach unanimous verdicts on both counts during his first trial in August 2025.
The approved schedule follows the government’s March request to begin the retrial on or around October 5 or October 12, 2026. Prosecutors estimated that the proceeding would last approximately three weeks, while Storm’s defense had indicated availability in late September, early October or early December.
Storm’s first trial ended with a split verdict. The jury convicted him of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business but remained deadlocked on the money-laundering and sanctions-evasion conspiracy counts.
The partial mistrial allowed prosecutors to pursue those charges again. Storm has not been convicted on either count returning to court, and the government must prove each allegation beyond a reasonable doubt before a new jury.
Prosecutors allege that Storm and other Tornado Cash founders knowingly maintained and promoted infrastructure used to move criminal proceeds, including cryptocurrency connected to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
Storm’s defense argues that Tornado Cash operated through non-custodial smart contracts, users retained control of their funds and the developers could not control how the protocol was used after deployment.
The court’s decision advances an October retrial push that began in March, when prosecutors asked Judge Katherine Polk Failla to place the case on the calendar before resolving Storm’s post-trial motions.
Storm’s motion for a judgment of acquittal under Rule 29 remains pending.
The defense is seeking acquittal on the existing money-transmission conviction as well as the two unresolved counts. Its filing challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, the government’s conspiracy theories, the application of money-transmission law to non-custodial software and whether prosecutors established the required criminal intent.
A ruling in Storm’s favor could overturn the August conviction and prevent one or both deadlocked charges from being retried. A narrower decision could restrict the evidence or legal theories available to prosecutors, while a denial would leave the fall schedule intact.
The second trial will again test how far criminal liability can extend to developers of decentralized privacy software when third parties use that software for illicit transactions.
The legal environment has changed since Storm was charged. The U.S. Treasury removed Tornado Cash from its sanctions list in March 2025 after courts rejected the treatment of immutable smart contracts as sanctionable property. The Justice Department has also adopted a more restrained policy toward prosecuting software developers for the independent conduct of end users.
Those shifts do not dismiss Storm’s criminal case, but they sharpen the dispute over intent, control and whether maintaining privacy infrastructure amounted to participation in money laundering or sanctions evasion.
The retrial now has an approved fall timetable, while the Rule 29 decision remains the case’s immediate turning point. Judge Failla’s ruling will determine whether prosecutors enter the new trial with both unresolved counts intact, a narrower case or no retrial at all.
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