A 12-person jury, including a member who celebrated her 90th birthday, deliberated this week in the complex case of Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash. They convicted Storm on one count of running an unlicensed money transmitting business, while remaining unable to reach a decision on other charges.
According to court documents released on Thursday by Judge Katherine Failla, jurors in the Storm case sent several requests for information before declaring they were deadlocked on two of the charges.
Among the letters to the judge were requests for transcripts of the testimony of several witnesses, clarification on what led to the indictment, and a specific query on the wallets included in North Korean sanctions.
After closing statements in the trial wrapped on July 30, the jurors deliberated for a week before declaring they were deadlocked on the money laundering and sanctions charges. Though each request for information or clarification came with a delay on a decision, there seemed to be no suggestion of a deadlock until Wednesday morning.
Aug. 6 note from Roman Storm jury foreperson before the verdict. Source: SDNY
“We have made our best effort to continue deliberating and come to a unanimous decision, however there are jurors who are set in stone with their decision even after we’ve put a good faith effort to consider all arguments and we are deadlocked,” the jury foreperson wrote at 10:38 am ET on Wednesday, just a couple hours before the body would announce it had reached a verdict on one of the charges.
Why did the jurors deadlock on money laundering?
According to the jury charge, the 12 individuals had to agree beyond a reasonable doubt that Storm joined in an “agreement or understanding” with others to commit money laundering, and he “knowingly and willfully” participated in its illegal purpose.
“Common sense will tell you that when people in fact undertake or agree to enter into a criminal conspiracy, much is left to the unexpressed understanding,” said the jury charge. “Conspirators do not usually reduce their agreements to writing. They do not typically publicly broadcast their plans.”
The detailed instructions coupled with the requests for information may partially explain some of the difficulties the jurors had in trying to form an opinion about whether Storm’s role with the crypto mixing service amounted to conspiracy to commit money laundering and violate US sanctions.
The names of the jurors were redacted from all court filings, but the judge signaled that one of them celebrated her 90th birthday while deliberating.
Storm’s sentencing hearing for the single felony charge had not been scheduled as of Friday. It was also unclear whether the US government intended to retry the Tornado Cash co-founder on the remaining charges.
Cointelegraph reached out to Storm’s legal team for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
