The first witness brought by government prosecutors detailed a catfishing scam in which the defendant played no apparent role.

Jury selection was completed and proceedings began in the criminal trial of Roman Storm today, Tuesday July 15, in the Thurgood Marshall courthouse of the Southern District of New York. Storm is the co-developer of the Tornado Cash protocol, and faces money laundering charges based on the protocols use by criminals to anonymize illicit funds.

Government prosecutors outlined their plan to connect Storm to a series of scams and hacks whose perpetrators used Tornado Cash. The defense used its opening to emphasize the widespread use of Tornado Cash by “normal people,” and emphasized that Storm played no role in the frauds the government planned to tie him to.

Jury selection featured a pool of 36 prospects who answered questions about their biographies, family, profession, and habits, notably including whether they were fans of procedural TV shows like Law and Order. These pretrial questions are used by defense and prosecution to select jurors more likely to be beneficial for their cases. The jury pool for cases at SDNY is drawn from areas stretching from Manhattan up to Westchester County, and the 16 jurors and alternates ultimately selected represented a cross-section of class, gender, and race.

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