The United States Department of Justice will leave a part of a position of its case against Tornado Roman Storm developer due to a recent policy memorandum, the agency said Thursday.
The Department of Justice will not go to trial for a position alleging that Storm did not comply with the commercial registration rules of the money transmitter, but still plans to go to trial in July for the accusations that he transmitted funds to knowing linked to the crimes, conspired to commit money laundering and conspired to violate the sanctions law, said the DOJ in a letter presented to the judge on his case.
“The Government writes to update the court regarding this case, which is scheduled for the trial on July 14, 2025,” said the letter. “After the review of this case, this office and the office of the attached attorney general have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the 725 memorandum of April 7, 2025 of the Deputy Attorney General.”
The memorandum of April 7, written by the attached attorney general Todd Blanche, ordered prosecutors that they do not pursue cases in which the regulations cannot be clear, or did not comply with certain criteria, specifically saying that the DOJ should end with “regulation for prosecution.” Prosecutors in another case against crypto developers mixer Samourai Wallet have already asked a judge to supervise that case to stop him while considering the memorandum.
In a statement, Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP told Coindesk that his company, who represents Storm, believes that “this case should never have been brought.”
“His dismissal would be consistent with the policies of the Trump administration and the principles described by the Department of Justice in his recent cryptocurrency guide memo,” he said. “Roman’s prosecution is a threat to the entire cryptographic industry and the interests of justice will be better attended for their rapid dismissal. We will not stop fighting for Roman and that result.”
Klein spoke at the Consensus 2025 Conference of Coendesk in Toronto on Wednesday, where he also shared his opinion that the case should not have been presented.
“One of the defenses that we have collected, which is recognized in the US. “It’s as if you wrote a book or did some other type of expressive activity.”
