Federal prosecutors have told the judge overseeing Roman Storm's Tornado Cash case that an appeals court decision upholding the conviction of Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov supports their argument that Storm was properly tried in New York.
In a letter filed Monday with Judge Katherine Polk Failla in the Southern District of New York, prosecutors cited the D.C. Circuit's September 25 ruling, which affirmed Sterlingov's conviction and 150-month sentence. Storm's motion for acquittal, which challenges venue among other grounds, was argued in April and remains undecided.
The Venue Argument
The Constitution requires that a crime be tried where at least part of it took place. In Sterlingov's case, the appeals court found venue proper in Washington based largely on a sting operation in which a special agent deposited approximately $250 worth of Bitcoin into Bitcoin Fog from Washington, D.C., and withdrew nearly all of it the next day.
Prosecutors argue the same reasoning applies to Tornado Cash. They cite testimony from Shakeeb Ahmed, a Tornado Cash user who said he accessed the service in his Manhattan apartment. Prosecutors contend Ahmed's deposit remained in the mixing pools for several days, comparable to the agent's transaction in the Bitcoin Fog case.
Storm's lawyers had argued that Ahmed's funds sat in the pools too briefly to further any conspiracy and that Ahmed used Tornado Cash before committing a separate crime.
Money Transmitting Count
On the money transmitting count, prosecutors argue that the appeals court found venue proper based on Bitcoin Fog serving customers in Washington, D.C., and that Ahmed's testimony demonstrates Tornado Cash did the same in Manhattan.
Background and Upcoming Trial
Tornado Cash and Bitcoin Fog are coin mixers—software that pools users' cryptocurrency to break the on-chain link between where funds originate and where they go. A Manhattan jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and deadlocked on money laundering and sanctions charges.
Storm's retrial on the two deadlocked counts is scheduled for April 26, 2027. Alexey Pertsev, who worked on Tornado Cash alongside Storm, was convicted of money laundering in the Netherlands in 2024 and was released to electronic monitoring pending appeal.
Regulatory Developments
On the same day prosecutors filed their letter, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network withdrew a 2023 proposal that would have required financial institutions to report transactions involving international crypto mixing. FinCEN cited commenters' concerns that its broad definition of mixing could have a chilling effect on legitimate activity. The agency noted that illicit actors continue to use mixers and said it will keep monitoring them.
