Roman Storm, the co-founder of Crypto Mixing Service Tornado Cash, asked for help to raise $ 500,000 immediately before his trial on Monday for money laundering and infringement of sanctions.
Storm posted on X on Saturday that it faces a “critical shortfall” and must collect $ 500,000 in the coming days, and will need another million dollars in the coming weeks to cover the cost of its legal battle.
“My team is constantly working to defend the code as freedom of expression, protect the development of software and push against the surpassing of the government that threatens us all,” he added.
In May, Free Pertsev & Storm, an organization created to provide legal aid to the founders of Tornado Cash, provided that the total legal cost of the Storm trial would be $ 2 million.
However, Storm said on Friday that its legal costs would increase to $ 3.5 million, as its trial could last up to four weeks, double the two weeks initially planned, due to “complex legal arguments and unforeseen witnesses and evidence”.
Storm was arrested in August 2023 for silver laundering counts, conspiracy to operate a silver issuer without license and the conspiracy to violate American sanctions and risks up to 45 years in prison if he was found guilty.
Friday, the Storm legal team attempted to postpone the trial, arguing that the prosecutors disclosed a witness after the end of the expected deadline.
The judge supervising the criminal trial of Storm, judge Katherine Failla, said that she would not authorize any mention of the sanctions of the American treasury taken from the torade in cash, which were withdrawn in March.
In relation: The Ethereum Foundation promises $ 500,000 to the defense of Roman Storm
In April, the crypto lobbying group, the DEFI Education Fund asked the Trump administration to put an end to the so-called “lawless prosecution” of open source software developers, notably Roman Storm.
57% of the objective increased for tornado cash tests
Storm is trying to raise $ 3.5 million in total. At the time of writing the editorial staff, Storm managed to raise $ 1.96 million, or around 57% of the target.
Since donations are made in ether (ETH), the amount collected can fluctuate. Currently, ETH is negotiated at $ 3,030, up 2.9% in the last 24 hours, according to Nansen.
Last month, the Ethereum Foundation said it would give a donation of $ 500,000 and correspond to the donations of the community up to $ 750,000 for the Storm legal defense.
Bill Warren from Metacartel said that the Metacartel Dao had given all the funds he had left in his treasure to support the cause.
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