InvestIndependently confirmed4 publishers3 min readPublished Updated
Storm's Tornado Cash retrial slips to April 2027, and the developer question slips with it
The judge moved the second trial to April 26, 2027, on the defense's own request. The count that would actually settle non-custodial developer liability is still waiting on sentencing.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Judge Katherine Polk Failla moved Roman Storm's Tornado Cash retrial from October 26, 2026 to April 26, 2027, exactly six months.
- His motion to acquit on all three counts, argued on April 9, is still undecided.
- The defense asked on August 3 for at least 90 days after that ruling to prepare, and prosecutors opposed an adjournment.
- The two counts a Manhattan jury deadlocked on in August 2025, money laundering and sanctions conspiracy, carry a combined 40-year maximum.
- Prosecutors under U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton had asked in March for the second trial to begin on October 5 or 12 this year.
Why it matters
- decision The defense's 90-day ask puts a soft deadline of about January 26, 2027 on Failla: rule after that and the April date she just set has to move again, or the preparation window shrinks.
- exposure Storm goes into 2027 unsentenced on a conviction and facing a 45-year theoretical maximum across three counts, which keeps the government's negotiating position intact for another eight months.
- constraint Because the delay came from the defense and the time is excluded under the Speedy Trial Act, the calendar itself is no longer an argument Storm can use against the prosecution.
- contradiction Main Justice said it would stop approving charges under this statute for decentralized non-custodial software, but only going forward, and the policy does not touch the two counts SDNY still...
The docket's next obligation is expert disclosures on February 5, 2027, with a final conference on April 20 [12]. That first date falls about 23 weeks after Tuesday's order [29], and Judge Katherine Polk Failla excluded the intervening months from the Speedy Trial clock [12]. The case the industry treats as its test of developer liability will therefore produce nothing on the record for most of a year, unless the acquittal motion is decided first [4].
When a second jury does sit, it will decide two conspiracy counts on one defendant's facts [3], and a district jury verdict is authority for nobody else. The count carrying the doctrine is the one already returned, conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business [3], and that becomes reviewable only after sentencing. Storm has not been sentenced [13], roughly a year after the verdict [30]. April 26, 2027 sits about 20 months past the conviction [18] and eight months past the order that set it [19]. The appellate ruling that would tell anyone what the statute means starts its own clock only after that.
Storm's read is that the government is "setting an example" rather than resolving anything, and that "SDNY won't stop" after a jury deadlocked on the two most serious counts [21]. He points to a February 2024 New York City Bar Association event, now filed as an exhibit on his docket, at which Tara La Morte, chief of SDNY's Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit, said her office wanted the industry to take notice and named the Tornado Cash prosecution as an example of bringing the sector into compliance [23]. "I honestly don't know when this ends," he wrote Tuesday [10]. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Vitalik Buterin, who backed Storm in January and called himself an active user of tools Storm developed, are attached to the case [27]; what they are waiting on has moved again.
What accumulates in the meantime is not law. The Samourai Wallet founders pleaded guilty to the same money transmitting conspiracy and drew five and four years in November 2025 [25], which disposes of two defendants and decides no question. President Trump told Decrypt in December he would look at a pardon for Keonne Rodriguez, who began serving days later [26]; that would be relief for one man, not a rule for the next developer. Alexey Pertsev's 64-month Dutch conviction is on appeal in a different legal system, with $1.25 million pledged by the Ethereum Foundation toward his defence [24].
The evidentiary fight Storm wants also runs on the new calendar. He says the trial record shows Chainalysis operated its own Tornado Cash relayer and earned fees on transactions flowing through it, and that after his lawyers subpoenaed the firm its witness pleaded the fifth, so the jury heard none of it [14]. Decrypt says it has asked Chainalysis for comment [14]. If that argument goes anywhere, it goes there in the spring of 2027.
What to watch
- Whether Failla rules on the acquittal motion before late January 2027, and whether a grant removes the retrial entirely.
- Whether sentencing on the money transmitting count is scheduled ahead of the retrial, since that is what makes an appeal possible.
- Any on-record answer from Chainalysis, and whether the relayer material is admitted before a second jury.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence78
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives60
- Confidence74
Perspective Coverage
4 publishers- Builder
- Builder 47%
- Operator
- Operator 34%
- Investor
- Investor 19%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Judge Katherine Polk Failla adjourned Roman Storm's retrial to April 26, 2027 at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, in an order entered Tuesday in the Southern District of New York.
- [2]
The retrial had been scheduled for October 26, 2026 before the adjournment.
- [3]
A Manhattan jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and split on conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions.
- [4]
Storm's motion for acquittal, argued on April 9, remains undecided.
- [5]
Storm asked the court to acquit him on all three charges, arguing prosecutors failed to prove he intended to help criminals misuse Tornado Cash.
- [6]
Storm's lawyers requested the delay on August 3, saying they needed at least 90 days after the court rules on the acquittal motion to prepare for another trial.
- [7]
Prosecutors opposed an adjournment, according to the filing.
- [8]
Failla cited Storm's pending motion for acquittal and "his related request to continue the retrial to a date in late April 2027," recording that the later date came from the defense.
- [9]
The two counts the government intends to retry carry a combined maximum of 40 years.
- [10]
"My acquittal motion is still sitting there, undecided," Storm said on X on Tuesday. "I honestly don't know when this ends."
ReportedSupportedSource: Roman Storm on X3 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [11]
Federal prosecutors under U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton asked in March for a retrial beginning October 5 or 12 this year; Storm's lawyers called that premature while the acquittal motion was live.
- [12]
The amended pretrial schedule runs from expert disclosures on February 5, 2027 to a final conference on April 20, 2027; Failla excluded the intervening time under the Speedy Trial Act.
- [13]
Storm has not yet been sentenced on the money transmitting count, which carries up to five years.
- [14]
Storm said blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis "was running its OWN Tornado Cash relayer, and earning fees on the transactions flowing through it," pointing to trial transcripts, and that after his lawyers subpoenaed Chainalysis to testify "the jury never heard any of it" because the firm's witness pleaded the fifth. Decrypt has reached out to Chainalysis for comment.
ReportedSupportedSource: Roman Storm on X; Decrypt2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source - [15]
Days after Storm's guilty verdict, Matthew Galeotti, then acting head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said prosecutors would no longer approve charges under the statute Storm was convicted on where software is decentralized and non-custodial, a policy he specified would apply going forward.
- [16]
The adjournment order was entered on Tuesday, August 25, 2026.
- [17]
The adjournment moves the retrial exactly six months, from October 26, 2026 to April 26, 2027.
- [18]
The April 26, 2027 retrial date is about 20 months after the August 2025 conviction.
- [19]
The retrial date is 244 days, about eight months, after the order that set it.
- [20]
Storm's theoretical maximum exposure across the three counts totals 45 years.
- [21]
Storm wrote of the order: "A jury deadlocked on the two most serious counts against me. And still SDNY won't stop... It's about setting an example."
- [22]
Storm's tweet marking the retrial order is dated August 25, 2026.
- [23]
Storm cited a February 2024 New York City Bar Association event, filed as an exhibit on his docket, at which Tara La Morte, chief of SDNY's Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit, said her office wanted the industry to take notice and named the Tornado Cash prosecution as an example of bringing the sector into compliance.
- [24]
Alexey Pertsev, who worked on Tornado Cash alongside Storm, was convicted of money laundering in the Netherlands in May 2024 and sentenced to 64 months; he was released to electronic monitoring in February 2025 while appealing, and the Ethereum Foundation has pledged $1.25 million toward his defense.
- [25]
Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill pleaded guilty to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and were sentenced in November 2025 to five and four years respectively.
- [26]
U.S. President Donald Trump told Decrypt in December he would take a look at a pardon for Rodriguez, who began serving his sentence days later.
- [27]
Storm's case has drawn attention from privacy advocates including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who backed Storm in January and described himself as "an active user of privacy tools, including those developed by Roman."
- [28]
For the April 26, 2027 date to hold under the defense's stated 90-day preparation need, a ruling on the acquittal motion would have to come by roughly January 26, 2027.
- [29]
Expert disclosures on February 5, 2027 fall 164 days, about 23 weeks, after the August 25, 2026 order.
- [30]
About 12 months passed between the August 2025 conviction and the August 25, 2026 order, with no sentence imposed on the count already decided.
Sources
4 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- bankless.comRoman Storm Retrial Delayed to April 2027
1 article · August 26, 2026
- cointelegraph.comTornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s retrial delayed to April 2027
1 article · August 26, 2026
- cryptobriefing.comRoman Storm’s retrial postponed to April 26, 2027
1 article · August 25, 2026
- decrypt.coRoman Storm's Tornado Cash Retrial Pushed to April 2027
1 article · August 26, 2026
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