Tornado Cash Co-Founder Heads to Court as DOJ Doubles Down on Crypto Crackdown
The U.S. Department of Justice isn’t backing down—Tornado Cash’s co-founder now faces trial in a high-stakes showdown over privacy tech. Critics call it another case of regulators playing whack-a-mole while Wall Street’s money-laundering casinos operate with impunity.
Privacy tool or criminal toolkit? The DOJ’s case could set a precedent that reshapes decentralized finance forever. Meanwhile, traditional banks quietly process billions in suspicious transactions—but hey, those fines are just cost of doing business, right?
Roman Storm to face trial on DOJ money laundering charges
The DOJ has opted to press on with its charges against crypto mixing platform Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm. According to a letter filed to the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, the Justice Department stated that it would proceed with a trial, slated for July 14.
“After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,” the letter states.
The DOJ will be dropping parts of its counts against Roman Storm, who will still face trial on charges of money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum on April 7 titled "Ending Regulation By Prosecution," marking a shift in the department’s approach toward digital assets enforcement.
The memorandum clarified that the DOJ would no longer pursue enforcement actions against VIRTUAL currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, etc. It also emphasized that unintentional regulatory violations would not, on their own, trigger enforcement.
The case against Tornado Cash founders began in August 2019 when the DOJ alleged that Storm, along with Roman Semenov, began using the platform to launder over $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds linked to the North Korean cybercrime Lazarus Group. The DOJ officially indicted Storm and Semenov in August 2023 on different counts of offenses.
The DOJ’s MOVE to proceed with Storm’s persecution has sparked criticism among crypto community members, who argue that the department is going against its memo.
“DOJ clearly ordered the end of regulation by criminal enforcement in crypto, but SDNY dropped only one of many inappropriate charges against Roman Storm,” wrote Variant Fund chief legal officer Jake Chervinsky in an X post on Thursday. “This is why people call it the Sovereign District of New York. The case should end, period,” he added.
The privacy tokens category remained fairly muted following the filing, with its top two tokens, Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) down 2% and 1%, in the past 24 hours.
