Roman Storm is a co-founder and developer of Tornado Cash. He developed an interest in computer software at a young age because his parents bought him a personal computer.
Now, at 36, he has been convicted of operating an unlicensed money transmission business. Prosecutors may still bring two felony charges against him: money laundering and conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions.
Storm has always been interested in the 'technical aspects' of things. He mentioned in a podcast that he spends time playing video games and taught himself computer programming.
From Russia to America
According to Storm's LinkedIn, he studied metallurgical engineering at South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, Russia, from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, he immigrated to the United States and began a difficult journey.
Initially, he did some freelance work and was later hired as a software engineer. He worked in quality assurance at Cisco and held senior positions at a cloud storage startup before briefly working at Amazon.
Cryptocurrency entrepreneurship and the origins of Tornado Cash
In August 2017, Storm left Amazon to work in blockchain development, focusing on the Ethereum ecosystem.
Soon, he became the technical director of POA Network and founded PepperSec, a consulting firm focused on security audits and custom development. During this time, he learned about the Ethereum community's demand for privacy tools, ultimately leading to the creation of Tornado Cash.
From code to court
In 2019, Storm became one of the three founders of Tornado Cash. The U.S. Department of Justice claims he had 'personal knowledge' that the platform was used by criminals to illegally transfer over $1 billion in assets.
In August 2023, Storm was charged with money laundering and other offenses, to which he pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. He stated on X (formerly Twitter) that he is a 'proud American citizen,' claiming he has become a target of the government for writing open-source code.
The Department of Justice may decide in the coming days whether to bring remaining charges against him in a new trial. The outcome of Storm's trial could set a precedent for how U.S. courts handle digital privacy cases and open-source software developers.