US Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutors have pushed again on the Tornado Cash co-founder’s protection, claiming that his arguments for dismissal lack applicability forward of an important listening to later this week.
DOJ Says Tornado Cash Founder’s Defense Is ‘Not Applicable’
On Tuesday, US Lawyer for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton despatched a letter to Choose Katherine Failla rejecting Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s current letter in help of his movement for a judgment of acquittal.
Clayton’s response addressed an April 2 movement filed by Storm’s protection, which claimed {that a} 2026 Supreme Court docket case, Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Leisure, supported his pending Rule 29 movement.
The Cox case concerned a civil legal responsibility of an web service supplier for its subscribers partaking in copyright infringement. The Supreme Court docket discovered that Cox was not contributorily chargeable for copyright infringement on its customers’ accounts, because it didn’t induce its customers’ infringement nor present a service tailor-made to infringement.
Within the Tuesday submitting, the US legal professional argued that “The defendant and the Tornado Cash service are a far cry from Cox,” affirming that “Even if Cox had some applicability here, its reasoning offers no help to the defendant given the strikingly different facts at issue.”
Prosecutors file letter pushing again on Storm's protection. Supply: Inside Metropolis Press on X
“As set forth in detail in the Government’s response to the defendant’s Rule 29 motion— and in contrast to Cox’s robust system for responding to infringement—the defendant intentionally implemented mere half-measures that he said were ‘easy to bypass’ to counter criminal use of the Tornado Cash service, and his purpose in doing so was to distract law enforcement,” the doc learn.
Clayton added that Storm’s use of the crypto mixer “was window dressing at best and outright misdirection at worst,” as there was no proof that the Tornado Cash founders put in place efficient anti-money-laundering (AML) measures.
It’s value noting that the US Division of the Treasury’s Workplace of International Belongings Management (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022 for failing to impose efficient controls to stop malicious actors from laundering funds by way of the protocol, together with $455 million by the North Korea-linked hacking group, Lazarus Group.
Nonetheless, the sanctions have been overturned in March 2025 after the Court docket of Appeals dominated in November 2024 that OFAC had overstepped its authority by sanctioning immutable, decentralized sensible contracts slightly than a authorized entity.
US Prosecutors Search Roman Storm Retrial
The prosecutors’ newest transfer follows his March letter searching for a retrial of the Tornado Cash co-founder on the 2 counts the place jurors have been deadlocked final August. Within the letter, Clayton requested Choose Failla to schedule a retrial for Roman Storm, pushing for trial dates between October 5 and 12, 2026.
For context, Storm was detained and indicted following the Tornado Cash sanctions and charged with conspiracy to commit cash laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to function an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise.
The jury discovered Storm responsible of 1 depend of conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise, however was unable to return to a unanimous resolution concerning the 2 different costs. Nonetheless, a hung jury doesn’t represent an acquittal, which opened the door to a possible retrial on these costs.
In September, Storm filed a movement for acquittal, which asks the trial choose to throw out costs or a verdict as a result of the prosecution’s proof is legally inadequate. The Tornado Cash founder’s legal professionals argued that the federal government by no means proved he meant to assist dangerous actors launder cash by way of the platform, which might invalidate the grounds for his conviction based mostly on negligent inaction.
Now, prosecutors and Storm’s protection attorneys are scheduled to fulfill on April 9 for an oral argument on the pending Rule 29 movement, which might form the course of this key authorized battle.
The overall crypto market capitalization sits at $2.32 trillion on the one-week chart. Supply: TOTAL on TradingView
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