Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm trial goes ahead with slight trim

Published

2 months ago

May 16, 2025

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Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm trial goes ahead with slight trim

US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month.

Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge.

“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,” Clayton wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s April memo said the Justice Department would end the so-called “regulation by prosecution” of crypto, and added that the agency wouldn’t prosecute crypto mixers like Tornado Cash “for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.”

Clayton added that the indictment against Storm will cut the accusation that he failed to comply with money transmitting business registration requirements.

Prosecutors were pursuing that charge as part of their allegation that Storm conspired to run Tornado Cash as an unlicensed money transmitter.

The government will still push ahead with the charge under the accusation that Storm transmitted funds while knowing they were derived from a criminal offence or were intended to support unlawful activity.

The Justice Department alleged that Tornado Cash helped launder over $1 billion worth of crypto, including for the sanctioned North Korean state-backed hacking collective the Lazarus Group.

Clayton said the Justice Department will also still pursue the other two charges in its indictment, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to violate US sanctions.

The money laundering and sanctions violations conspiracy charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the unlicensed money transmitter conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Storm has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for July 14. He was charged alongside fellow founder Roman Semenov, who is at large and believed to be in his native Russia.

Blanche memo cited in bids to toss

Other crypto executives facing charges have pointed to Blanche’s memo in a bid to have their cases dismissed.

Crypto mixer Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill had pointed to the memo to try to dismiss their charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and money laundering conspiracy.

Braden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has also cited the memo in an attempt to have the charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy against him dismissed.

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Politics

Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

The CARF regulation, which brings crypto under global tax reporting standards akin to traditional finance, marks a crucial turning point.

Politics

Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

The nascent real-world tokenized assets track prices but do not provide investors the same legal rights as holding the underlying instruments.

Politics

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

13 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”