U.S. federal prosecutors have pushed back against a letter from attorneys representing Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, urging the judge not to consider a recent Supreme Court ruling in the case.
In a letter filed Tuesday, prosecutors said the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding internet service provider Cox — which Storm's lawyers cited in support of their motion to dismiss the criminal case — was "inapposite" to Storm's case.
Prosecutors argued that Storm's conduct "bears no resemblance to the conduct at issue in Cox."
Storm, a co-founder of crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, was accused of facilitating the laundering of more than $1 billion. In August, a jury convicted him on a count of money transmitting but did not reach a verdict on other charges related to money laundering and sanctions evasion.
Last week, Storm's lawyers filed a letter to Judge Katherine Polk Failla, bringing the ruling on Cox to the judge's attention. In the March ruling, the Supreme Court found that Cox should not be held responsible for its users' illicit conduct in a music copyright case, suggesting the decision could have implications for Storm, said Storm's attorneys.
Prosecutors, however, noted in the Tuesday letter that there are key differences between the two cases. While the Supreme Court acknowledged that Cox actively discouraged copyright infringement, prosecutors argued that Storm and Tornado Cash failed to take meaningful steps to prevent illicit activity on the platform.
"He actively lied in response to inquiries from victims, telling them he had little control over the protocol when in fact he and his co-conspirators implemented over 250 changes to Tornado Cash infrastructure during the charged time period and explicitly discussed — but forwent — feasible measures to curb criminality on their platform," the prosecutors said.
"In short, the defendant's reaction to criminal use of his company was window dressing at best and outright misdirection at worst," the prosecutors added. "It was nothing like Cox's robust and 98% effective mechanism for dealing with known infringement."
Retrial looms
The latest exchange came after prosecutors officially requested a retrial last month on two unresolved charges. The prosecutors suggested that the court schedule the retrial to begin in October 2026, according to a court filing.
Storm's case, which began during the Biden administration, has drawn support from many in the crypto industry. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in January that he is a believer in privacy and an active user of privacy tools, including those developed by Storm.
"Unlike some others, who use these causes as an excuse to make profit and write software that has flashy advertising but is broken under the hood, Roman's applications continued to be usable even years after he stopped working on them — this alone in my eyes makes him more honorable than much of what passes for 'consumer tech' in our modern world," Buterin wrote at the time.
Meanwhile, in August, Matthew J Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said that "writing code" is not a crime, but noted that the DOJ will continue to prosecute those who knowingly commit or aid crimes, including fraud, money laundering, and sanctions evasion.
Founders of a similar crypto mixing service, Samourai Wallet, have already pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and are currently serving their prison terms.
Samourai co-founder Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison, and William Lonergan Hill was sentenced to four years for their roles in operating a crypto mixing service that prosecutors said enabled criminals to "wash millions in dirty money."
