US jury deadlocks on Tornado Cash founder's money laundering charge
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. jury deadlocked on Wednesday on money laundering and sanctions evasion charges against the founder of Tornado Cash, a firm that makes cryptocurrency transactions harder to track.
The jury in Manhattan federal court could not reach a verdict on charges Roman Storm conspired to launder the proceeds of hacks, including by a sanctioned North Korean government-backed group. But the jury found him guilty of the less serious charge of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla at a later date. The money laundering and sanctions evasion conspiracy charges each carried possible 20-year sentences.
Storm was arrested in 2023 on charges that the so-called mixer he founded helped hide more than $1 billion, including hundreds of millions of dollars for Pyongyang-backed hacking group Lazarus Group, which is blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury over its alleged financial support of North Korea.
Storm, 36, had pleaded not guilty to all three felony charges he faced.
Prosecutors told Failla they would inform her at a later date of whether they intend to re-try Storm on the money laundering and sanctions charges.
In a statement after the verdict, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said, "Criminals who use new technology to commit age old crimes, including hiding dirty money, undermine the public trust."
Storm may ask Failla to toss the conviction for unlicensed money transmitting, or appeal the conviction after he is sentenced.
"We are grateful the jury did not convict Roman for violating sanctions or laundering money," Brian Klein, a lawyer for Storm, said in a statement after the verdict. Klein said he expected Storm to be vindicated on the unlicensed money transmission count as well, which he said faced "serious legal issues."
In his closing argument on July 30 after a two-week trial in Manhattan federal court, defense lawyer David Patton said even though Tornado Cash's privacy tools may have been useful to criminals, Storm's intent was not to help conceal illicit funds.
"Roman very much did not want hackers and scammers to use Tornado Cash," Patton said.
Prosecutor Benjamin Gianforti said Storm had been informed multiple times between 2020 and 2022 that Tornado Cash was helping criminals hide dirty money, but kept running the business out of greed.
"The real money wasn't in protecting privacy for regular folks, it was in providing privacy for big-time crypto criminals," Gianforti said.
Tornado Cash had itself been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury under then-President Joe Biden's Democratic administration over its alleged support of North Korea.
The Treasury lifted those sanctions in March, two months into Republican President Donald Trump's administration, saying it had reviewed legal and policy issues raised by the sanctions within "evolving technology and legal environments."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Things are getting tougher': I'm struggling with $145,000 in debt. Should I refinance my 3.5% mortgage?
I'm in my upper 40s and have $300,000 in my 401(k). I also have 23 years on my mortgage — $254,000 with a 3.25% interest rate — and $400,000 in equity. Things are getting tougher each month with expenses, and I find myself in $145,000 debt between low-rate credit cards (15%) and a 8% HELOC. Medicare will test using AI to help decide whether patients get coverage — which could delay or deny care, critics warn 'I'm tired of corporate America': My wife and I have $1.65 million. I'm 61. Can I retire already? 'She lives alone': My mother-in-law, 86, gets $1,300 in Social Security. Is that enough to live on? 'Stagflation is coming to the U.S.,' says this economist. Here's what it means for the dollar, bonds and stocks. Shop Top Mortgage Rates Personalized rates in minutes A quicker path to financial freedom Your Path to Homeownership If you were in my shoes, would you rather refinance at a 6.7% mortgage rate and pay off the credit-card debt and home-equity loan, get a HELOC or downsize your home? Forties Don't miss: 'He claims to be a nihilist': I told my friend to sell his Tesla shares. He did not appreciate my advice. Was I wrong? You have a few poisoned chalices to choose from. Given that you are paying 3.5% on a $254,000 mortgage, I assume your monthly payment is around $1,100 a month. Only two options you outline allow you to keep your current home. An ideal third option would be getting rid of your credit-card debt at all costs by slashing expenses. However, if your goal is to get rid of this $145,000 debt entirely and get back into the black, downsizing might be the lesser of three evils; the other two being refinancing your mortgage or taking out an 8% HELOC to cover that credit-card debt. Downsizing would be humbling, but that's not always a bad thing, especially if you preserve your 401(k). It also allows you to take a long, hard look at your finances and figure out why you got into $145,000 debt, not to punish yourself, but in order to prevent it from happening again. By downsizing, you would be taking on a higher mortgage rate — around 6.7% — but hopefully for a much smaller amount. You would not increase your monthly expenses, allowing yourself to save and invest money and be free of your unsecured debt. Selling your house and releasing that $400,000 in equity, paying off the $145,000 in combined debt, and buying a smaller house for $500,000 at a 30-year rate of 6.7% interest with the remainder of your cash, would leave you with a $1,500 monthly payment. The downsides are obvious: You have the potential emotional gut punch of trading down, you don't have such a valuable asset and you pay more interest over the lifetime of the loan. The upside: Your life becomes more manageable on a month-to-month basis. And refinancing? Brace yourself for a numbers salad. These are blunt back-of-the-napkin calculations, excluding home insurance and other costs, to show you the difference in your monthly payments under each scenario, and give you an idea of how much interest you would pay with each one. a) Refinancing your existing mortgage to add that $145,000 in debt — plus $5,000 in attorney fees, etc. — would give you a $2,600 monthly payment at a 30-year mortgage rate of 6.7%. That does not seem like a viable solution for you. b) Converting your debts to a 20-year HELOC at 8%, would give you a $1,300 monthly payment in addition to your existing mortgage payment. So your monthly payment would, in total, jump to $2,400. Is that lower than what you are paying now? Again, it does not seem viable. Frankly, none of these rough refinancing estimates sound like attractive solutions for you, but they give you an idea of your monthly payments, your interest payments and keeping your current home versus giving it up for a smaller house. Some context on the kind of interest you'd pay with your three options: 1) With the downsizing option, you pay roughly $321,600 in interest over 30 years but could aim to pay off the mortgage early. 2) By refinancing at 6.7%, you pay $526,560 in interest over 30 years. 3) With a $145,000 home-equity line of credit, or HELOC, you would pay $146,360 on your loan in interest over 20 years. Adding the roughly $144,000 interest you're paying on your existing 30-year mortgage at 3.5%, you'd be paying total interest of $290,360. If you refinanced your mortgage debt or took out a HELOC, would either of those options reduce your current monthly debt payments enough to make it worth your while? If not, are you willing to downsize to a smaller home to pay the debt and have lower monthly costs? If you are unsure, cut your expenses and live like a monk to pay your debt. Don't miss: 'It might be another Apple or Microsoft': My wife invested $100K in one stock and it exploded 1,500%. Do we sell? My therapist said he was in-network. He's not. Am I obliged to pay out-of-network rates for all prior sessions? 'I have never been asked for money before': My friend wants to borrow $1,600 to pay her rent. Do I say yes? 'I feel shaken': A man offered $50 to powerwash my patio. He would not take 'no' for an answer. My late husband's employer is forcing me to take 10% 401(k) distributions. Help! Millions of student-loan borrowers have no idea how much they're supposed to pay 'I feel shaken': A man offered to powerwash my patio for $50. He would not take no for an answer. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bessent says new Fed chair should be someone who can examine organization, Nikkei reports
TOKYO (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new Federal Reserve chair should be someone "who can examine the whole organization" as the Fed's mission has included so many things outside of monetary policy and has put its independence at risk, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported. "It's someone who has to have the confidence of the markets, the ability to analyze complex economic data," Bessent told the Nikkei in an interview, when asked about the qualities the new Fed chair should possess. "And it's also someone who wants to be, I think, very attuned to forward thinking, as opposed to relying on historical data," Bessent was quoted as saying in the interview, which was conducted in Washington on August 7 and published on Monday. A source has told Reuters that Bessent is leading a search for a successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, with an expanded list that includes a longtime economic consultant and a past regional Fed president. Sign in to access your portfolio
Wall Street Journal
29 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Activist Investor to Push Avantor to Sell Itself
Activist investor Engine Capital has built a stake in Avantor AVTR 1.05%increase; green up pointing triangle and plans to push the life-sciences company to sell itself or make other changes, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment firm could reveal its roughly 3% stake in Avantor on Monday, the people said.
