A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business but could not reach a verdict on separate allegations of money laundering and sanctions evasion. The partial verdict was returned on 6 August after the panel, reporting an impasse, received an Allen charge from U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla urging further deliberations. Storm, 36, was charged in 2023 with three conspiracy counts. Prosecutors said his open-source protocol processed more than US$1 billion in illicit cryptocurrency, including funds linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, and described the mixer as a “giant washing machine” for hackers and scammers. Defence lawyers argued that Tornado Cash is neutral privacy software and that Storm had no control over users’ activities. The lone conviction under 18 U.S.C. §1960 carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison. Prosecutors asked the court to revoke Storm’s bail, citing his Russian citizenship and access to substantial cryptocurrency assets, but Judge Failla allowed him to remain free on a US$2 million bond. The Justice Department has not yet said whether it will seek a retrial on the hung counts. The case is being closely watched by cryptocurrency developers and privacy advocates, who say its outcome will shape how U.S. authorities apply money-transmission and anti-laundering rules to decentralised software projects.