NEW YORK — A 12-person jury has been seated for Twister Money developer Roman Storm’s felony trial, and opening arguments are set to start later this afternoon within the Thurgood Marshall courthouse in decrease Manhattan.
Seven ladies and 5 males with a various vary of backgrounds and ages will resolve whether or not the U.S. Division of Justice can show past an affordable doubt that Storm engaged in conspiracy to commit cash laundering, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions and conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise. Jury choice started on Monday.
Of the jurors, only one works as an IT supervisor, whereas one other works at surveillance and information agency Palantir. The remainder have completely different instructional backgrounds starting from highschool diplomas to a grasp’s diploma, and their ages vary from people of their 20s to their 60s.
The courtroom went on break after the jury was seated, however opening arguments will start shortly and are anticipated to finish earlier than the shut of enterprise on Tuesday. The trial itself is predicted to final about 4 weeks.
Learn extra: Right to Code? Tornado Cash Dev Roman Storm’s Money Laundering Trial Kicks Off Monday
Opening arguments come as Storm’s protection group tries to dismiss among the proof prosecutors intend to introduce in the course of the trial, together with communications between Storm and his fellow Twister Money developer, Alexey Pertsev.
The protection has argued {that a} portion of the messages obtained from Pertsev “fails to establish and mischaracterizes who truly wrote the messages,” together with an inquiry from a now-former CoinDesk reporter to Twister Money builders after the hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge.
Of their indictment of Storm, prosecutors characterised that inquiry as coming from Pertsev:
“[Pertsev] despatched a message to Storm and [Tornado Cash developer Roman Semenov] via the Encrypted App, saying ‘Heya, anybody round to speak about axie? Wish to ask just a few normal questions on how one goes about cashing out 600 mil,'” the indictment mentioned in paragraph 57.
The message was truly from a former CoinDesk reporter, despatched to a bunch chat that included different (now-former) CoinDesk reporters and editors, in addition to Storm and Pertsev.
“That chat is only one instance of many,” the protection argued in a filing on Friday.
CORRECTION (July 15, 2025, 18:15 UTC): Corrects a truncated sentence concerning the jurors’ instructional backgrounds.