Roman Storm’s team expected to close case next week, developer may still testify

Defense attorneys representing Tornado Cash co-founder and developer Roman Storm will reportedly rest their case sometime next week, sending the matter to the jury.

According to reporting from Inner City Press on Friday, Judge Katherine Failla said she expected to hear closing statements from prosecutors and Storm’s legal team on Tuesday or Wednesday. The timeline gives the Tornado Cash co-founder roughly five days to present his defense in court.

Whether Storm intends to take the stand in his own defense was unclear as of Friday. Before his trial started, the Tornado Cash co-founder gave an interview in which he said he “may or may not” testify

Friday’s court proceedings ended in the morning with testimony from an FBI special agent, who previously said Storm had control over some of the funds used with Tornado Cash. This marked the 10th day of Storm’s trial, in which he faces charges of money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to violate US sanctions.

Defense attorneys began presenting their case on Thursday, starting with testimony from Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon. They reportedly said that as many as five witnesses could take the stand before they rested next week.

Related: Ethereum core developer testifies in Roman Storm defense as gov’t rests case

Community reacts as case proceeds

The Storm case has drawn considerable attention from crypto and blockchain developers. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Paradigm founder Matt Huang and the Ethereum Foundation have all contributed to the Tornado Cash co-founder’s legal fund, which he reported held more than $2.8 million as of Thursday.

“In Ethereum we protect our own, and uphold our honor,” said Buterin in a Jan. 22 reply to Storm on X.

Source: Ethereum Foundation“Privacy is a constitutional right, and publishing open source software is not a crime,” said Reddit user NoSkidMarks in response to Buterin’s support of Storm.

Storm also claimed on X that a software and payroll company, Gusto, has deactivated his account, suggesting that it was due to his criminal charges. Cointelegraph reached out to Gusto for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

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