In New York, the jury responsible for determining the fate of Roman Storm, the developer behind Tornado Cash, has notified the court that they are deadlocked and cannot reach a unanimous verdict on at least one of the charges. This development occurred on the fourth day of jury deliberations. According to Inner City Press, Storm's defense team proposed that the court accept a partial verdict, while the prosecution requested that the jury be given an Allen charge, which essentially instructs the jury to continue deliberating in an attempt to reach a unanimous decision on all charges.
The presiding judge, Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York, sided with the prosecution and instructed the jury to continue their deliberations, emphasizing that they have the right not to agree or change their opinions if a consensus cannot be reached. Over the course of several days, the jury's notes have indicated a thorough consideration of all aspects of the case, including procedural matters such as venue. On the first day of deliberations, the jury inquired about the evidence of venue presented to the grand jury in 2023 to secure the indictment. The following day, the jury requested transcripts from the testimony of an FBI agent who conducted cell-site analysis on Tom Schmidt, a venture capitalist from Dragonfly Capital who invested $900,000 in Tornado Cash's parent company, PepperSec Inc.
The prosecution used the fact that Schmidt is based in New York to establish venue; however, the jury seemed hesitant to accept this reasoning and requested the transcripts 'to prove venue.' The jury has also posed questions regarding whether Storm was legally obligated to respond to requests for assistance from foreign law enforcement and whether intermediary wallets were included on the Office of Foreign Asset Control's specially-designated nationals list. Storm faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, and conspiracy to violate international sanctions, with a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.
The prosecution alleges that, through Tornado Cash, Storm and his colleagues assisted hackers and other cybercriminals, including North Korea's state-sanctioned hacking squad, the Lazarus Group, in laundering over $1 billion in criminal proceeds.