DOJ Cites Bitcoin Fog Ruling in Roman Storm Venue Fight

Federal prosecutors cited a recent appeals court ruling in the Bitcoin Fog case to oppose Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s request for acquittal. They argued that the ruling supports New York as the venue for Storm’s money-laundering and unlicensed money-transmission conspiracy charges.

In a Monday filing, prosecutors pointed to a Sept. 25 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court upheld the convictions and 12.5-year sentence of Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov and found that Washington, D.C., was a proper venue for all four counts.

For the money-laundering counts, the court relied on evidence that an undercover agent completed Bitcoin Fog transactions from his office in Washington. For the unlicensed money-transmission counts, it found sufficient evidence that the mixer had served customers in the district.

Prosecutors described the Bitcoin Fog ruling as directly supporting their position in Storm’s case. They pointed to testimony from Shakeeb Ahmed, who said he used Tornado Cash from his apartment in Manhattan. The government argued that the activity established venue in the Southern District of New York.

Storm’s September 2025 acquittal motion argued that Ahmed’s use of Tornado Cash did not establish venue because the transactions did not advance the conspiracy alleged by prosecutors. The government responded that even short-lived deposits can benefit a mixer by adding transactions to the pool used to obscure the movement of funds.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla heard arguments on Storm’s acquittal motion in April 2026 and has not ruled. A retrial on the money-laundering and sanctions-conspiracy charges is scheduled for April 26, 2027, if those charges remain pending.

A jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. It did not reach a verdict on the money-laundering and sanctions-conspiracy charges. Storm has argued that prosecutors did not prove he intended to help criminals misuse Tornado Cash.

Storm criticized the filing in a Monday post on X, writing, “The DOJ is still coming after me with everything it has.” He also cited the Treasury Department’s announcement that it would withdraw a proposed rule targeting cryptocurrency mixers and argued that the government was taking conflicting positions on privacy tools.