Summary
- Prosecutors informed Judge Katherine Polk Failla that a recent appeals court ruling regarding Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov supports their claim that Roman Storm should be tried in Manhattan.
- The argument suggests that transactions linked to a Tornado Cash user from his Manhattan home justify the venue for two charges.
- Storm's defense highlighted a recent withdrawal of a proposed crypto reporting rule by FinCEN as a relevant point.
In a recent submission to the court, federal prosecutors asserted to Judge Katherine Polk Failla that a decision from an appeals court affirming the conviction of Roman Sterlingov, the founder of Bitcoin Fog, bolsters their case for trying Roman Storm in New York.
Both Tornado Cash and Bitcoin Fog function as coin mixers, which are platforms that aggregate users' cryptocurrencies to obscure the transaction trail on the blockchain.
The letter, submitted on Monday in the Southern District of New York, references a D.C. Circuit ruling from September 25 that upheld Sterlingov's conviction and a 150-month prison sentence.
Storm's acquittal motion, which challenges the venue among other arguments, was presented in April and is still pending. A jury in Manhattan found Storm guilty in August 2025 of conspiring to run an unlicensed money transmission service, while they were unable to reach a verdict on money laundering and sanctions violations.
The prosecutors' letter discusses both the money laundering conspiracy charge and the money transmitting charge, noting that the Constitution mandates a crime be prosecuted in the location where it occurred.
In the case of Sterlingov, the D.C. Circuit deemed the venue appropriate in Washington due to a sting operation where a special agent deposited approximately $250 in Bitcoin into Bitcoin Fog and withdrew nearly all of it the following day, as stated in the ruling.
Tornado Cash's Connection to Manhattan
Prosecutors claim that similar logic applies to Shakeeb Ahmed, a Tornado Cash user who testified about accessing the service from his Manhattan residence.
Storm's defense argued that Ahmed's funds were in the pools for too short a period to contribute to any conspiracy. The prosecution counters that his deposit remained for "a couple of days," analogous to the agent's involvement in the Bitcoin Fog case.
During the April hearing, Storm's attorney Brian Klein contended that Ahmed used Tornado Cash prior to committing his crime and did not actually utilize the service for his hack.
Regarding the money transmitting charge, the letter indicates that the appeals court found the venue appropriate simply because Bitcoin Fog had "served customers in the District," and Ahmed's testimony shows that Tornado Cash did the same in Manhattan.
Storm shared the letter in a tweet on Tuesday, expressing, "The DOJ is still coming after me with everything it has. They really want to see me convicted," and noted it has been 1,139 days since his ordeal began, mentioning his daughter was only three years old at the time of his arrest.
October 5, 2026
A new letter was filed today by SDNY:https://t.co/RHnuxKSbXhThe DOJ is still coming after me with everything it has. They really want to see me convicted.
It has been 1,139 days since my nightmare began.
They arrested me when my daughter was just 3 years old,…— Roman Storm 🇺🇸 🌪️ (@rstormsf) October 6, 2026
Storm also noted a Treasury notice filed on the same day as the letter, where FinCEN rescinded a 2023 proposal that would have mandated financial institutions to report transactions involving international crypto mixing. FinCEN clarified that this decision was influenced by concerns from commenters about the broad definition of mixing potentially impacting legitimate activities.
The notice further states that illicit actors continue to exploit mixers, and FinCEN will maintain oversight of these activities.
Storm contrasted this with prosecutor Ben Arad's argument during the April hearing, where he claimed that once Tornado Cash primarily served criminals, "even the legitimate transactions that went through Tornado Cash became illegitimate." Failla questioned this assertion, expressing her concern about the implication.
Storm's retrial concerning the two unresolved charges is set for April 26, 2027, following prosecutors' attempts to commence it this month. Alexey Pertsev, a collaborator on Tornado Cash with Storm, was convicted of money laundering in the Netherlands in 2024 and has since been released to electronic monitoring pending his appeal.