NEW YORK — A 12-person jury has been seated for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s criminal trial, and opening arguments are set to begin later this afternoon in the Thurgood Marshall courthouse in lower Manhattan.
Seven women and five men with a diverse range of backgrounds and ages will decide whether the U.S. Department of Justice can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Storm engaged in conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Jury selection began on Monday.
Of the jurors, just one works as an IT manager, while another works at surveillance and data firm Palantir. The rest have different educational backgrounds ranging from high school diplomas to a master’s degree, and their ages range from individuals in their 20s to their 60s.
The court went on break after the jury was seated, but opening arguments will begin shortly and are expected to end before the close of business on Tuesday. The trial itself is expected to last about four weeks.
Read more: Right to Code? Tornado Cash Dev Roman Storm’s Money Laundering Trial Kicks Off Monday
Opening arguments come as Storm’s defense team tries to dismiss some of the evidence prosecutors intend to introduce during the trial, including communications between Storm and his fellow Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev.
The defense has argued that a portion of the messages obtained from Pertsev “fails to identify and mischaracterizes who actually wrote the messages,” including an inquiry from a now-former CoinDesk reporter to Tornado Cash developers after the hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge.
In their indictment of Storm, prosecutors characterized that inquiry as coming from Pertsev:
“[Pertsev] sent a message to Storm and [Tornado Cash developer Roman Semenov] through the Encrypted App, saying ‘Heya, anyone around to chat about axie? Would like to ask a few general questions about how one goes about cashing out 600 mil,'” the indictment said in paragraph 57.
The message was actually from a former CoinDesk reporter, sent to a group chat that included other (now-former) CoinDesk reporters and editors, as well as Storm and Pertsev.
“That chat is just one example of many,” the defense argued in a filing on Friday.
CORRECTION (July 15, 2025, 18:15 UTC): Corrects a truncated sentence about the jurors’ educational backgrounds.