NEW YORK — A 12-person jury has been seated for Twister Money developer Roman Storm’s prison trial, and opening arguments are set to start later this afternoon within the Thurgood Marshall courthouse in decrease Manhattan.
Seven girls 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 inexpensive 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 remaining have completely different academic 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 anticipated to final about 4 weeks.
Learn extra: Proper to Code? Twister Money Dev Roman Storm’s Cash Laundering Trial Kicks Off Monday
Opening arguments come as Storm’s protection workforce tries to dismiss among the proof prosecutors intend to introduce throughout 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 determine 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] by means of the Encrypted App, saying ‘Heya, anybody round to talk about axie? Wish to ask a couple of normal questions on how one goes about cashing out 600 mil,'” the indictment stated in paragraph 57.
The message was truly from a former CoinDesk reporter, despatched to a gaggle 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 submitting on Friday.
CORRECTION (July 15, 2025, 18:15 UTC): Corrects a truncated sentence concerning the jurors’ academic backgrounds.
