Tornado Cash co-founder’s money laundering trial postponed to April 2025

Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s trial has been pushed to April 2025, four months beyond the original date, following Judge Katherine Polk Failla’s ruling on November 1.

The New York judge moved up the trial date to give the two parties time to swap information on the expert witnesses they might call to resolve their disagreements, which started about a month ago.

Storm’s defense team challenges Judge Failla’s decision

Judge Katherine Polk Failla has postponed Roman Storm’s trial to April next year, giving both parties time to exchange information on their expert witnesses. The trial is set to start on April 14 and will last for another two weeks.

However, Storm’s lawyers have contested the judge’s ruling, arguing that the disclosure requirement would hurt their planned defense. 

In an October 14 filing, the defense team, led by Brian Klein at Waymaker LLP, claimed the information swap would reveal their hand and ‘greatly prejudice Mr. Storm.’ They even asserted that the judge’s order may infringe on one of the federal rules governing criminal cases, as they had not asked for any expert list from the prosecution.

Moreover, the developer’s legal team submitted a mandamus petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, wanting a higher court to reverse Judge Katherine Failla’s ruling. A hearing for the petition was set for November 12, with some expecting the trial to span 2 weeks.

Court slaps Roman Storm with a three-count indictment

Storm’s long run of court cases started when US prosecutors accused him of aiding a $1 billion laundering operation for North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Storm was then charged with three counts: conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. 

In 2023, his legal team argued that their client was only involved in code writing and that the case infringed on free speech. They even asked the court to drop all of his charges.

However, Judge Katherine Polk refuted the defense argument saying:

At this stage in the case, this court cannot simply accept Mr. Storm’s narrative that he is being prosecuted merely for writing code. If the jury ultimately accepts this narrative, then it will acquit. But there’s no basis for me to decide that as a matter of law. – Judge Katherine Polk

She then scheduled the next trial for December, before changing it to April 2025 on Friday.