Gavel-to-Gavel: A Verdict, a Vacate, and a Venezuela Bet — Crypto's Court Calendar Is Filling Up Fast ⚖️

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have proposed a late 2026 retrial for Roman Storm, the co-founder and developer of crypto mixer Tornado Cash, who was found guilty on one of three charges related to illegal money transmitting in 2025 while a jury deadlocked on the remaining counts. In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, US Attorney for SDNY Jay Clayton proposed an Oct. 20 final pretrial conference, signaling a potential trial start date of late October or November 2026. The filing noted that the timeline is subject to the court's decision on a Rule 29 motion filed by Storm, who is requesting acquittal of the remaining charges, which include conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions. Storm's case has drawn sustained attention from the crypto industry over the implications for developers potentially being held criminally liable for code they write.

Separately, Judge John Koeltl of the US District Court for SDNY set a 60-day deadline for prosecutors to respond to a pro se motion to vacate filed by Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius. Mashinsky, who has said he would be representing himself, was sentenced in May 2025 to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $48 million in forfeiture. He was indicted in 2023 alongside Roni Cohen-Pavon on charges related to fraud and market manipulation; Celsius filed for bankruptcy in 2022 amid a crypto market downturn that also saw the collapse of exchanges FTX and Voyager Digital. Cohen-Pavon was sentenced to time served and ordered to pay more than $1 million along with a $40,000 fine.

In a third SDNY case, Judge Margaret Garnett ordered a Dec. 7 jury selection date for US soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was charged after allegedly making more than $400,000 on a Polymarket event contract related to the capture of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro. A June 10 filing set deadlines for pretrial motions from US prosecutors and defense attorneys. Van Dyke was arrested in April and accused of using nonpublic information to profit off the contract, which is the subject of the ongoing federal prosecution scheduled to proceed to trial later this year.