Roman Storm's Tornado Cash prosecution retrial pushed to April 2027; developer argues selective enforcement while Chainalysis ran its own relayer without prosecution.
Regulation & Gov ·
Roman Storm's retrial in his Tornado Cash prosecution has been rescheduled to April 26, 2027, according to a recent court order. Storm, a developer, has argued that his prosecution represents selective enforcement, pointing to what he characterizes as disparate treatment compared to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. He contends that while Chainalysis operated its own Tornado Cash relayer and collected fees from users of the privacy mixer, the company faced no criminal charges, whereas he faces prosecution for writing code.
Storm's case has encountered significant legal obstacles. A jury previously deadlocked on the two most serious counts against him, and an acquittal motion remains undecided. The Southern District of New York's chief of the Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit stated publicly that the prosecution aims to make an example of the case to bring the industry into compliance with regulations, suggesting the charges extend beyond Storm's individual conduct to serve a broader deterrent purpose.
The core dispute hinges on whether code constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment and whether enforcement has been applied consistently. Storm's broader argument—that privacy tools have been effectively suppressed through selective prosecution—remains unresolved as the case approaches another trial date more than two years away.