Trial of Tornado Cash Co-Founder Postponed to April 2025

Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has postponed the trial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm to April 14, 2025, as reported by CoinDesk.

A hearing regarding the disclosure of expert witnesses is scheduled for November 12. The parties will have four months to resolve disputes on this matter.

Storm’s legal team from Waymaker LLP rejected the judge’s October 14 order to share expert witness information with the prosecution, arguing it is “highly biased” and detrimental to Storm’s defense strategy.

In August 2022, the OFAC sanctioned the Tornado Cash website, alleging it was used by criminals to launder over $7 billion in cryptocurrency. More than $455 million of this was linked to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.

In the same month, Dutch authorities arrested mixer developer Alexey Pertsev.

On May 14, 2024, he was found guilty of laundering $1.2 billion through Tornado Cash and sentenced to 64 months in prison. In July, the court denied Pertsev bail pending appeal.

Storm and another co-founder of the mixer, Roman Semenov, also face charges of money laundering and sanctions violations in the U.S.

Storm was released on bail but refused to plead guilty. In September, the court rejected Storm’s motion to dismiss the case. Semenov remains free but has been sanctioned.