Lawyers representing Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, are considering filing for a mistrial after a key government witness failed to directly connect her stolen funds to the crypto mixing service.
During a hearing on Monday before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, Storm’s legal team raised concerns over testimony given by Hanfeng Lin, a victim of a $250,000 romance scam. Lin told the court that she was informed by a crypto recovery firm, Payback, that her funds had been routed through Tornado Cash. However, Storm’s attorney, David Patton, challenged the credibility of this claim, noting their independent analysis found no transaction ties to the protocol.
Inner City Press
OK – now in US v. Roman Storm, FBI DeCapua on direct about 16 hacks worth $1 billion he says were run through Tornado Cash. Inner City Press put out book about the case, Crypto Tornado https://t.co/I5v9z8JIhg and will live tweet, thread below pic.twitter.com/qv61W1MeJR— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) July 21, 2025
Further doubts emerged during cross-examination of FBI agent Joseph DeCapua, who confirmed he had not been asked to verify whether Lin’s funds passed through Tornado Cash. Despite this, prosecutors plan to bring in IRS analyst Stephan George to establish the alleged transaction trail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thane Rehn said George would testify about the “few short hops” linking Lin’s stolen assets to the mixing service.
Independent blockchain researchers have also scrutinized Lin’s claims. Taylor Monahan, a security researcher at MetaMask, reported no evidence of Tornado Cash’s involvement in Lin’s transactions, a position supported by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who criticized Payback’s tracing report for inaccuracies.
Storm currently faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Prosecutors allege Tornado Cash facilitated laundering of over $1 billion, including funds for North Korea’s Lazarus Group, and accuse Storm of enabling criminal transactions without implementing controls.
Storm has pleaded not guilty, with his defence arguing that Tornado Cash operates as a decentralized and autonomous smart contract protocol beyond the direct control of its developers.
The case has sparked wider debate within the crypto industry, with critics warning that criminalizing developers for open-source code could threaten innovation and financial privacy worldwide.
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