NEW YORK – A jury of 12 people was seated for the Tornado Cash developer, the criminal trial of Roman Storm, and the opening arguments should start later this afternoon in the Thurgood Marshall courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
Seven women and five men with a diversified fan of horizons and ages will decide whether the United States Ministry of Justice can prove out of any reasonable doubt that Storm has embarked on the conspiracy in order to commit money laundering, a conspiracy to violate American sanctions and the conspiracy in sight to exploit a business transmission company without license. The jury selection started on Monday.
Among the jurors, only one works as a computer manager, while another works in the Palantir surveillance and data firm. The others have different educational history ranging from secondary school diplomas to master’s degree, and their ages go from individuals in their twenties to sixties.
The court paused after the jury was seated, but the opening arguments will start shortly and should end before the business closed on Tuesday. The trial itself should last about four weeks.
Read more: Code right? Tornado Cash Dev Roman Storm’s Money Whitering Trial starts on Monday
The opening arguments are involved while Storm’s defense team tries to reject some of the evidence that prosecutors intend to present during the trial, including communications between Storm and his colleague Treasury Developer Tornado, Alexey Pertsev.
The defense argued that a part of the messages obtained from Pertsev “fails to identify and wander badly who really wrote the messages”, including an investigation by a Coindesk journalist now training in the developers of Tornado Cash after the hacking of the Ronin of Axie Infinity.
In their storm accusation act, prosecutors characterized this investigation as coming from Pertsev:
“”[Pertsev] sent a message to the storm and [Tornado Cash developer Roman Semenov] Thanks to the encrypted application, saying: “Heya, someone around discuss axia? I would like to ask a few general questions about the way we happen on the withdrawal of 600 mil ”, said the accusation in paragraph 57.
The message actually came from a former Coindesk journalist, sent to a group cat who included others (now form) Coindesk reporters and publishers, as well as Storm and Pertsev.
“This cat is only one example of many,” said defense in a file on Friday.
CORRECTION (July 15, 2025, 18:15 UTC):: Corrects a truncated sentence on the educational history of jurors.
