Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s trial shaken as defense eyes mistrial over witness testimony: reports

The Block

2025-07-22 05:43:33

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Lawyers for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm are reportedly weighing a potential mistrial after raising concerns about the government's evidence. According to the defense, prosecutors called a victim of a pig butchering scam to the stand who may never have used the privacy-preserving crypto mixer.

As Storm heads into the second week of his trial, Storm's lawyer David Patton pushed against the witness' assertion that her stolen crypto had been laundered through Tornado Cash, according to reporting from DL News and CoinDesk.

Hanfeng Ling had earlier testified that she had fallen for a pig butchering scam in 2021 and said that a "crypto recovery service" she had used had said some of the funds had gone through Tornado Cash. However, over the weekend, Storm's lawyers said they were not able to track Ling's funds to Tornado Cash.

Ethereum security expert Taylor Monahan posted on X over the weekend that scammers do not use Tornado Cash. In a series a posts, Monahan detailed why she believed the funds did not go through Tornado Cash.

"Due to the aforementioned crackhead explosion tracing, I already knew that her funds did NOT go to Tornado," Monahan said. "I have no clue what they were tracing. There's no Tornado Cash."

Storm's trial began last week in a federal court in Manhattan. In 2023, Storm was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and sanctions violations for operating Tornado Cash. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 45 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

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