The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has pledged to donate up to $500,000 to Tornado Cash’s co-founder, Roman Storm, to support his ongoing legal defense. This follows the recent trial verdict that found Storm guilty of one of three charges.
Ethereum Foundation Supports Tornado Cash’s Co-Founder
On Thursday, the Free Pertsev and Storm fundraiser revealed that the Ethereum Foundation will match donations up to $500,000 to support the Tornado Cash co-founder’s legal defense following this week’s verdict.
In an X post, the fundraiser’s team explained that they “will need these funds and more to continue the fight for Roman at the trial court and on appeal. The outcome of these proceedings will set major precedent for developers worldwide.”
As reported by Bitcoinist, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022 for failing to impose effective controls to prevent malicious actors from laundering funds through the protocol, including $455 million by the North Korea-linked hacking group, Lazarus Group.
Storm was detained and indicted following the Tornado Cash sanctions and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
On August 6, the verdict of the long-awaited trial, which started on July 14 after being delayed twice, was announced. Notably, the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision regarding two of the three charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit sanctions violations.
Nonetheless, the jury found the Tornado Cash co-founder guilty of the remaining charge: conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which could lead to a 5-year conviction for the crypto mixer’s co-founder.
After the verdict, he told journalist Elenor Terret that the verdict was “a big win. The ‘1960’ charge is bullshit and we’re going to fight it all the way. You know how President Trump said ‘fight, fight, fight’? We’ll do that too.”
As the Free Pertsev and Storm team detailed, “Roman risks up to 5 years of jail time if he doesn’t win the appeal, and potentially decades if the government decides to retry Counts 1 & 3.”
What’s Next For Storm’s Defense?
Unchained host and journalist Laura Shin interviewed former prosecutor Sam Enzer to discuss the mixed verdict and what’s next for the Tornado Cash co-founder. Enzer noted that before getting to appeal, “Roman gets to move for a new trial or a judgment of a quibble.” After that, “there will be a briefing on that. The court, Judge Failla will rule.”
As the former prosecutors explained, if the Judge rules that the conviction was proper on the conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business count, they could proceed to sentencing. Additionally, the government could retry Storm on the two counts for which the jury was hung.
So, it is possible that they could be retried, or the judge could say, I think the conviction was inappropriate, and could say that on the counts that the jury hung on, those should have been acquitted.
Enzer asserted that if either of these “extreme” outcomes happens, the case could go on appeal after making its way through the district court, adding that “who appeals will depend on what the outcome is. If the government’s upset with the outcome, it’ll be them appealing. If Roman’s upset with the outcome, he’ll be appealing.”
