New York – Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm has been found guilty of conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmitting business, decided a jury jury on Wednesday.
The jury was unable to reach a unanimous sentence on the remaining charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate international sanctions despite four days of considerations after the three -week trial. A penalty has not yet been set and it is currently unclear whether prosecutors will choose to try Storm on the remaining charges. Prosecutors told the court on Wednesday afternoon that they will give internally and decide.
Storm was arrested in 2023 and accused of helping hackers and other cyber criminals, including North Korea’s famous hacking team, the Lazarus group, money laundering more than $ 1 billion in dirty money through Tornado Cash, Crypto Privacy Tool, which he helped develop.
After the jury has read the verdict, prosecutors moved to Storm, currently on bail, to be detained in prison for awaiting criminal offense, arguing that “he is from Russia” (Storm was born in Kazakhstan and is a US citizen who has lived in Seattle, Washington for over a decade), ” Economic means to flow to the country, according to reports from the interior.
Storm’s lawyers pushed back and argued that the developer is not a risk of flight. Keri Axel, a partner in Waymaker and a lawyer for Storm, told District Judge Katherine Polke Failla from the southern district of New York (SDNY) who stormed his passport and has a deep family tape-inclusive joint custody of a five-year-old daughter in Washington State, where he lives and extended family in Sacramento, Californien-til USA.
Failla eventually sits with Storm’s lawyers and argued that she didn’t think Storm was a risk of flying when he was only sentenced to a prosecution.
“He can appeal, he has any incentive to stay and fight,” Failla said. “He is not a risk of flight considering the size of the bond. There are a lot of matches left in this case before conviction, and I think Mr. Storm will be for it.”
The verdict in Storm’s case comes just a week after the developers of Samorai Wallet, a Bitcoin-focused privacy tool, similar to Tornado Cash, pleaded guilty to a counting each of the conspiracy to run an unlicensed money that transmits business. The developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, changed their original ‘not guilty’ pleas after reaching an agreement with prosecutors who saw the hefty money laundering of conspiracy fees fell.
