Tornado Cash co-founder keeps testimony plans unclear ahead of trial

Roman Storm, one of the co-founders and developers behind the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, appeared in a video interview as his US criminal trial is expected to begin in less than two weeks.

In an interview released Wednesday by Crypto In America, Storm said his legal team intended to address at trial the allegations that he had personally profited from illicit funds through his role at Tornado Cash.

However, he declined to say whether he would testify in his own defense over charges of money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter, and conspiracy to violate US sanctions.

“This is the decision that we will make,” said Storm on taking the stand in court. “I don’t have a 100% answer right now. I may or may not.”

US authorities indicted Storm in 2023, roughly a year after the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned addresses connected to Tornado Cash. The government agency said the mixing service had facilitated money laundering with crypto stolen by North Korea-based hackers, the Lazarus Group.

Roman Semenov, one of the other Tornado Cash developers named in the same indictment as Storm, was still at large at the time of publication. However, Alexey Pertsev, another co-founder and developer, was found guilty of money laundering in the Netherlands and sentenced to more than five years in prison.

Life while awaiting trial for Storm

Since his arrest, Storm has received an outpouring of support from many people in the crypto industry, decrying his indictment as an attack on developers and privacy.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Paradigm founder Matt Huang, and the Ethereum Foundation have all contributed thousands of dollars to Storm’s legal fund, which was reported to have more than $750,000 as of June 26.

“I’ve got a lot of mental damage from this case, obviously,” said Storm. “It’s so damaging [...] you believed in one thing, you believed that there is a [sic] common sense, there is a misunderstanding, and you’re getting this [sic] harsh things going on in your life. I would definitely need to recover myself for some time to get back into what I love.” 

Storm’s trial is expected to begin in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 14.