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Federal prosecutors have cited a Sept. 25 appeals court ruling in the Bitcoin Fog case as supplemental authority opposing Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s bid for acquittal, according to Cointelegraph. The letter was filed Monday with Judge Katherine Polk Failla in the Southern District of New York.
The D.C. Circuit ruling affirmed the convictions and sentence of Roman Sterlingov, who operated the Bitcoin Fog mixer, and held that Washington, D.C. was a proper venue for all four counts. Prosecutors argue the same logic applies to Storm, whose 2025 acquittal motion contests venue among other grounds.
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Key facts
- The D.C. Circuit issued its Bitcoin Fog ruling on Sept. 25, 2026, affirming Roman Sterlingov’s convictions and sentence.
- Prosecutors filed their supplemental authority letter on Monday, citing Shakeeb Ahmed’s testimony that he used Tornado Cash from his Manhattan apartment.
- Judge Katherine Polk Failla heard arguments on Storm’s acquittal motion in April 2026 and has not yet ruled.
- A jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business but deadlocked on the money-laundering and sanctions conspiracy counts.
- A retrial on the deadlocked counts is scheduled for April 26, 2027, if those charges remain pending.
How the venue arguments split
Storm’s September 2025 motion argued that Ahmed’s use of Tornado Cash from his Manhattan apartment was insufficient to establish venue because the transactions did not further the alleged conspiracy. Prosecutors countered that even short-lived deposits can aid a mixer by enlarging the pool of transactions used to obscure fund movements.
Decrypt reported that Storm’s lawyer Brian Klein told the April hearing that Ahmed used Tornado Cash before committing his crime and did not use the service for his hack. Decrypt also quoted prosecutor Ben Arad arguing that once Tornado Cash was largely serving criminals, even legitimate transactions through it became illegitimate — a position Failla pressed him on, saying she was concerned if that was his theory. The Decrypt account further noted that the letter says Ahmed’s deposit stayed in the pool for a couple of days, comparable to an undercover agent’s deposit in the Bitcoin Fog sting.
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Blockonomi reported the same core sequence, including that Storm filed his post-trial motion in September 2025 and that the D.C. Circuit found venue proper in Washington based on evidence an undercover agent transacted from a D.C. office and that Bitcoin Fog served customers in the district.
Why it matters
The letter is an attempt to persuade Failla that Manhattan was a legitimate forum for two counts that a jury could not resolve, meaning the venue question could decide whether Storm faces a second trial at all. Mixer cases have turned repeatedly on where transactions physically occurred rather than where the software ran, so the D.C. Circuit’s reasoning carries weight beyond this single dispute. Storm’s public response framed the filing as continued pursuit by the government.
What to watch
Failla’s ruling on the acquittal motion is the next concrete step; she has not issued a decision since the April 2026 arguments. If the money-laundering and sanctions conspiracy counts survive, the retrial is set for April 26, 2027.
Reported by cointelegraph.com.
Sources: Cointelegraph, Blockonomi, Decrypt