Roman Storm Retrial Pushed to April 2027 Amid Pending Acquittal Motion
US federal judge Katherine Polk Failla has rescheduled Roman Storm's retrial to April 26, 2027. The trial was initially set for October 2026 but will now take place six months later. Storm is a co-founder of Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy protocol.
The delay comes as Storm's defense team cited scheduling conflicts and the pending motion for judgment of acquittal filed by Storm on September 30, 2025. The Rule 29 motion challenges his conviction for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in August 2025. A first jury found Storm guilty but deadlocked on two other charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate US sanctions.
Both unresolved counts carry a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years each. The first trial lasted four weeks, with prosecutors narrowing the case by dropping part of its money transmission theory in May 2025. The Justice Department had instructed federal prosecutors to avoid using technical registration violations as a means to regulate the crypto industry.
Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control in August 2022, accusing it of being used for laundering billions of dollars in virtual currency. However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled that immutable Tornado Cash smart contracts could not be treated as property under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.