‘If I lose, DeFi dies with me:’ Tornado Cash co-founder doubles down on innocence ahead of trial

With his criminal trial just weeks away, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm is speaking out and denying any wrongdoing.

In a recent interview with Crypto in America, Storm said the U.S. government is prosecuting him for writing open-source code, not for any actual criminal conduct. 

Facing three felony charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions law, federal prosecutors allege that Tornado Cash, founded by Storm and two others, was used to launder more than $1 billion in illicit funds, including money linked to North Korea’s infamous hacker group Lazarus. 

Storm denies knowingly facilitating criminal activity. According to him, Tornado Cash was built to protect user privacy, and once it was deployed, it operated autonomously and outside of his control.

“I did not have any contact whatsoever with any criminals, any criminal organizations, any illicit actors, or any North Koreans,” he said, adding “We didn’t have control over what happened. If someone did something illicit, we couldn’t stop it.”

The co-founder was arrested in August 2023. His fellow developer, Alexey Pertsev, was convicted of money laundering last year in the Netherlands and sentenced to 64 months in prison. Tornado Cash’s third co-founder, Roman Semenov, is also charged but remains at large.

Since his arrest, Storm says he’s been under strict bail conditions and has been cut off from the financial system, with no bank accounts, no access to crypto wallets. “I’m being punished before being proven guilty,” he said.

When asked about the broader stakes of the case, Storm warned that a conviction could harm developers and open-source innovation in the U.S. crypto space. 

“If I lose my case, DeFi dies with me,” he said, arguing that treating developers like criminals sets a dangerous precedent.

Storm’s trial is set to begin on July 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. While the co-founder kept much of his defense strategy under wraps, such as whether he’ll testify, he stated his team will argue that writing code is free speech and that creating open-source tools isn’t a crime, even if misused.

Meanwhile, support for Storm has continued to grow. Industry figures including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin have publicly backed his defense and donated to his legal fund.