Roman Storm, co-founder of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, has accused the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of mishandling critical evidence days before his July 14 criminal trial in Manhattan. Court filings reveal prosecutors erroneously attributed a Telegram message about laundering $600 million from the Axie Infinity exploit to Storm's collaborator Alexey Pertsev, when it was actually written by journalist Andrew Thurman and merely forwarded by Pertsev.
The disputed message – "Heya, anyone around to chat about axie? Would like to ask a few general questions about how one goes about cashing out 600 mil" – was cited by prosecutors as proof of the developers' awareness of illicit activities. Storm's defense team contends the evidence chain is fatally flawed due to incomplete data extraction from Pertsev's phone by Dutch authorities after his 2022 arrest, and the FBI's failure to preserve "forwarded" tags in initial evidence disclosures.
Concurrently, Storm urgently seeks $500,000 in immediate legal funds, with total defense costs now estimated at $3.5 million due to the trial's extension to four weeks. The Ethereum Foundation has pledged $500,000 and will match community donations up to $750,000, contributing to the $1.96 million (57% of goal) already raised in ETH. Judge Katherine Failla has barred any mention of rescinded U.S. Treasury sanctions against Tornado Cash during the trial, where Storm faces 45 years for allegedly facilitating $1 billion in illicit transactions.