The New York-a 12-person jury has been seated for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s criminal trial, and opening arguments will begin later this afternoon in Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
Seven women and five men with a wide range of backgrounds and ages will decide whether the US Ministry of Justice can prove over a fair doubt that Storm is dealing with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate US sanctions and conspiracy to run an illegal money transmitting business. Selection of jury began Monday.
Of the jury leaders, only one acts as an IT manager, while another works on surveillance and data company Palantir. The rest have different educational backgrounds ranging from high school diplomas to a master’s degree, and their ages range from individuals in their 20s to 60s.
The court paused after the jury was seated, but the opening of arguments begins shortly and is expected to end before the business ending on Tuesday. The trial itself is expected to last about four weeks.
Read more: Right to code? Tornado Cash Dev Roman Storm’s Money Lausing Trial Starts Monday
Opening arguments comes as Storm’s defense team tries to reject some of the evidence that prosecutors intend to introduce during the trial, including communication between Storm and his colleague Tornado Cash Developer, Alexey Pertev.
The defense has claimed that some of the messages obtained from Pertsev, “fails to identify and miscaragree who actually wrote the messages,” including a request from a recent Coindesk reporter to Tornado Cash developers after the hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge.
In their indictment of storm, prosecutors characterized that investigation that came from Pertsev:
“[Pertsev] sent a message to storm and [Tornado Cash developer Roman Semenov] Through the encrypted app and said ‘Heya, someone who is chatting about Axie? Would like to ask a few general questions about how to proceed with the payment of 600 miles, ‘”said the indictment in section 57.
The message was actually from a previous Coindesk -Reporter, sent to a group chat that included others (now-earlier) Coindesk -Journalists and editors as well as Storm and Pertsev.
“That chat is only an example of many,” the defense argued in an archiving Friday.
CORRECTION (July 15, 2025, 18:15 UTC): Corrects a truncated judgment on the jury leaders’ educational backgrounds.
