Twister Money co-founder Roman Storm is about to face trial on Monday within the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on federal fees that might put him behind bars for greater than 40 years.
Prosecutors allege he conspired to launder cash, violated US sanctions and operated an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise stemming from his position in creating Twister Money, an open-source protocol that enables customers to hide blockchain transactions — whether or not for privateness or to obscure illicit exercise.
On the coronary heart of Storm’s protection is the argument that Twister Money shouldn’t be a enterprise however a decentralized and immutable protocol that he now not managed. Additionally, code is taken into account protected speech beneath the First Modification within the US.
The trial in the end hinges on whether or not Storm’s actions amounted to protected speech or crossed into prison conduct.
Listed below are the important thing info to know earlier than Storm faces the courtroom.
Why is Twister Money’s Roman Storm on trial?
Storm moved to the US from Russia in 2008 and later grew to become a US citizen. In a current interview with “Crypto In America,” he stated the freedoms granted to people within the US deeply resonated with him and had been a key motivator for his transfer.
Whereas working as a software program engineer in San Francisco in 2014, he found Bitcoin and was “blown away” by the thought of transacting freely with others on a decentralized community.
In 2019, Storm attended a convention representing his consulting agency, PepperSec. He met Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who inspired him to discover privateness in blockchain functions. That dialog ultimately led to Storm co-creating Twister Money with Alexey Pertsev and Roman Semenov.
Pertsev was discovered responsible of cash laundering within the Netherlands and is presently interesting the choice. Semenov stays at giant and is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s wished record.
Launched in 2019, Twister Money is a software designed to obscure blockchain transaction histories. When a person deposits crypto into the protocol, it generates a secret code that enables them to later withdraw the identical quantity to a unique pockets deal with. As a result of deposits and withdrawals are recorded as separate transactions, they’re harder to hint than typical blockchain transactions.
It rapidly attracted illicit customers, together with North Korean hackers, prompting the US Treasury’s Workplace of International Property Management (OFAC) to impose sanctions on the protocol in 2022. Nevertheless, in March 2025, these sanctions had been reversed following a civil problem in Van Loon v. Division of the Treasury, introduced by Twister Money customers.
Choose Katherine Failla, who’s presiding over Storm’s case, lately stated she was “inclined” to exclude the 2022 sanctions from the trial.
Associated: From Sony to Bybit: How Lazarus Group grew to become crypto’s supervillain
Failla has beforehand overseen main cryptocurrency instances, together with the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit towards decentralized trade Uniswap and the Securities and Change Fee’s (SEC) now-dropped lawsuit towards Coinbase.
Twister Money’s decentralization is central to the protection
Storm is being prosecuted by a group skilled in crypto crime: Thane Rehn and Benjamin Gianforti, assistant US attorneys within the SDNY. Gianforti secured convictions within the IcomTech and Forcount crypto Ponzi instances. Rehn was the prosecutor towards FTX.
In Storm’s nook, he’s represented by a authorized group led by Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP and David Patton of Hecker Fink LLP. Klein is a white-collar protection lawyer identified for high-profile crypto instances, together with his work defending Mango Markets exploiter Avi Eisenberg and crypto trade Kraken. Patton, a federal trial lawyer, has represented main crypto figures corresponding to Terraform Labs co-founder Kwon Do-hyung, higher generally known as Do Kwon.
The protection argues that their shopper can’t be held chargeable for how Twister Money was used as a result of the protocol is decentralized and past his management. In Might 2020, Twister Money builders started relinquishing management and moved towards a completely decentralized system.
In line with the protection, Storm merely wrote and revealed open-source code. He didn’t run a enterprise, provide a service or handle prospects. They cite a 2019 Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community (FinCEN) steering that stated builders of anonymizing software program weren’t required to register as cash transmitters.
That argument has gained traction in associated instances. In Van Loon v. Division of the Treasury, the Fifth Circuit dominated that Twister Money’s immutable sensible contracts weren’t “property” topic to US sanctions.
In Storm’s personal case, companies like Paradigm have filed amicus briefs urging the courtroom to weigh the broader penalties of prosecuting open-source software program builders. The Blockchain Affiliation, Digital Frontier Basis, Coin Middle and DeFi Schooling Fund have additionally submitted briefs in his protection. A authorized fundraiser supporting his case has raised $1.96 million on the time of writing.
“Roman wrote and deployed open-source code. He didn’t launder funds or run a enterprise,” Amal Ibraymi, authorized counsel at Ethereum privateness community Aztec Labs, instructed Cointelegraph.
“Prosecuting him for others’ use of that code dangers setting a deeply regarding benchmark the place writing code for privateness instruments turns into a authorized legal responsibility even when that code is public, permissionless and never beneath the developer’s management.”
In the meantime, the prosecution’s indictment distinguishes Twister Money’s immutable sensible contracts and its frontend interface. Prosecutors allege that Storm and his co-founders paid for US-based hosting and maintained an internet site that allowed customers to work together with the protocol. They declare the builders retained the power to switch the UI at will.
Associated: Bitcoin to profit from Trump’s ‘Massive Lovely Invoice,’ analysts predict
A key growth has been the Trump administration’s crypto-friendly stance in comparison with that of Joe Biden’s. In the course of the Biden period, the Securities and Change Fee confronted criticism for its “regulation by enforcement” strategy; nevertheless, the company has since dropped a number of main crypto instances — together with some earlier than Choose Failla.
Underneath the Trump administration was the Division of Justice’s (DOJ) April Blanche Memo. It instructed federal prosecutors to keep away from bringing regulatory fees in digital asset instances — corresponding to for unlicensed cash transmission — except they will present the defendant acted willfully and knew of any licensing necessities.
“The Blanche Memo makes clear that the DOJ shouldn’t prioritize instances towards builders of open-source, general-purpose instruments with out clear prison intent,” Ibraymi stated. “For this protection group, this presents a robust argument that the prosecution contradicts the DOJ’s personal steering.”
Twister Money trial within the US might affect Dutch attraction
Twister Money co-founder Pertsev was discovered responsible of cash laundering by a Dutch courtroom in 2024 and sentenced to over 5 years in jail. His conviction was primarily based largely on the identical argument now being made by US prosecutors.
Nevertheless, the authorized framing within the US might sway Pertsev’s attraction course of within the Netherlands. Pertsev’s authorized group is presently difficult the ruling, arguing that the protocol’s immutability and decentralization make it essentially totally different from an organization or custodial service.
If Storm is acquitted, or if the US courtroom affirms that writing open-source code is protected speech, it could bolster the protection’s argument that Pertsev was wrongly held accountable for the autonomous actions of a decentralized protocol.
“There’s little question that prosecutors in each nations are watching these instances intently. However that scrutiny cuts each methods, and robust authorized arguments made in a single case may help reinforce the protection within the different,” Ibraymi stated.
“Specifically, with the Fifth Circuit already affirming key rules round decentralization and code, there’s rising momentum to push again towards efforts to criminalize builders for constructing instruments they don’t management,” she added.
European courts should not sure by US choices, however the high-profile nature of the case and its implications for builders globally imply that Storm’s trial is being watched intently by privateness advocates, authorized students and regulators throughout jurisdictions.
The case towards Storm in the end exams whether or not publishing open-source privateness software program will be thought-about prison conduct when that code is later used for illicit functions. The prosecution argues that Storm knowingly facilitated cash laundering past coding itself, corresponding to via the challenge’s person interface.
The protection maintains that he merely wrote decentralized code that now operates past his management. In a late twist, in addition they accused prosecutors of misrepresenting key Telegram proof, saying the federal government solely disclosed essential metadata — displaying a reporter’s message was forwarded by Storm, not authored. His trial begins Monday within the SDNY.
Journal: Inside a 30,000 cellphone bot farm stealing crypto airdrops from actual customers
