The US Treasury told Congress this month that crypto mixers have legitimate uses — including protecting consumer privacy.
Days later, federal prosecutors in Manhattan moved to put the man who built one of the most-used mixers back on trial.
A Split Jury, A Second Chance
Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton filed a letter Monday asking federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla to schedule a retrial for Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, on two counts where jurors deadlocked last year.
Clayton’s office is pushing for trial dates between October 5 and 12, with proceedings expected to run three weeks.
Prosecutors said they were ready to go as early as spring, but Storm’s defense team indicated they wouldn’t be available until late 2026.
DOJ has decided it will retry Roman Storm in the fall. Despite failing to convince a jury the first time around, despite making obvious mistakes like calling irrelevant witnesses and not understanding the forensic analysis of their own blockchain evidence, and despite multiple… pic.twitter.com/MRZDHAugT8
— Amanda Tuminelli (@amandatums) March 10, 2026
Last August, a jury convicted Storm on one count — conspiring to run an unlicensed money transmitting business — but could not reach a unanimous decision on the other two: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions.
A hung jury does not count as an acquittal, which leaves prosecutors free to try again. Storm has since asked Judge Polk Failla to throw out even the conviction, arguing the government never proved he meant to help bad actors launder money through the platform.
Crypto Crime: 40 Years On The Line
The stakes are severe. Storm posted on X that a conviction on both retried counts could send him to federal prison for up to 40 years.
He described his alleged offense bluntly: writing open-source code for a protocol he does not control, involving transactions he never personally handled.
?NEW: The DOJ has asked to retry @TornadoCash co-founder @rstormsf on the two counts the jury hung on in the first trial: money laundering and sanctions violations.
Prosecutors proposed an early October retrial date, even as Storm’s Rule 29 motion to overturn his conviction on… https://t.co/0zX4hemook
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) March 10, 2026
“A jury already couldn’t agree this was criminal,” Storm wrote. “But the SDNY prosecutors want to keep trying with the hope of getting a different answer.”
Amanda Tuminelli, legal chief at crypto advocacy group the DeFi Education Fund, called the retrial decision “incredibly disappointing.”
She pointed to what she described as prosecutorial missteps during the first trial — irrelevant witnesses, a weak grasp of the blockchain forensics at the center of the case, and what she called flawed legal reasoning around third-party developer liability.
The Memo That Didn’t Hold
Storm also raised a pointed contradiction. In April, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo stating the Justice Department “is not a digital assets regulator” and would stop pursuing cases that effectively impose regulatory frameworks on crypto.
Storm noted that the same DOJ is now seeking his retrial anyway.
“Same country, same DOJ,” he wrote. “Just filed to retry me anyway.”
Reports indicate Clayton’s letter was filed the same week the Treasury Department’s congressional report acknowledged that some people use crypto mixers for entirely lawful purposes, including keeping their spending habits private.
Whether that acknowledgment will factor into Storm’s defense remains to be seen. His acquittal motion is scheduled for argument in early April, and a ruling is expected before any retrial date is set.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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