Court to open as early as October! U.S. prosecutors seek re-trial for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm

The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to once again bring Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm to the defendant’s stand. Regarding the two charges against Roman Storm that have not yet been adjudicated, prosecutors recently filed a motion for a retrial and proposed scheduling the court hearing in early to mid-October 2026.
According to a letter submitted on Monday to Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) explicitly states its intention to reaffirm charges 1 and 3 against Roman Storm in the superseding indictment. Prosecutors estimate the trial will last approximately three weeks.
Tornado Cash is a “non-custodial mixer” that enhances blockchain transaction privacy by blending multiple transactions to obscure fund flows. U.S. authorities allege that the platform was misused by criminals, including North Korean hacker groups, for money laundering involving over $1 billion in illegal funds.
In August last year, a jury found Roman Storm guilty of “operating a remittance business without authorization,” but could not reach a consensus on two more serious charges: “conspiracy to commit money laundering” and “violating international sanctions,” leading to a deadlock.
Although Roman Storm has filed a “Rule 29 motion” under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure—requesting the judge to enter a judgment of acquittal either during or after trial—and a hearing is scheduled for April 9, prosecutors strongly urge the court to “set a retrial date first” to avoid delays caused by scheduling conflicts.
The Department of Justice emphasizes that prosecutors are ready to proceed with the retrial this spring but are willing to accommodate the defense’s schedule. They state:

To avoid further scheduling conflicts and delays, if the court’s schedule permits, the government respectfully requests that the court set the retrial date around October 5 or 12, 2026.

According to the prosecutors’ letter, Roman Storm and his legal team believe that “it is premature to set a retrial date at this stage”; however, they confirm that if a retrial is necessary, they can free up three weeks in late September, early October, or early December to appear in court.
Facing persistent prosecution, Roman Storm immediately responded on social platform X, vowing to “never give up the fight for freedom.” He wrote:

These two charges carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison—just because I wrote open-source code, for a protocol I cannot control, and for transactions I never touched.

Today, the SDNY prosecutors filed a letter to Judge Failla requesting a retrial date. They want to go again in October. The prosecutors want to retry me on 2 counts the jury couldn’t unanimously decide on. A jury of 12 Americans heard 4 weeks of evidence and deadlocked: no… pic.twitter.com/ZG5pGy4Mer

— Roman Storm 🇺🇸 🌪️ (@rstormsf) March 10, 2026

He further pointed out: “The jury had long since been unable to determine that this constituted a crime, but prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are relentless, trying again and again just to get the conviction they want.”