Federal prosecutors have cited a recent appeals court ruling involving cryptocurrency mixer Bitcoin Fog as supplemental authority in their opposition to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's motion for acquittal.

ornado Cash, like Bitcoin Fog, is a crypto mixing service that pools transactions from multiple users to obscure the movement of funds, and the filing ties the legal treatment of the two tools together.

In a Monday filing, prosecutors pointed to a Sept. 25 appellate ruling that affirmed the convictions and sentence of Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, who received a prison term of 12.5 years.

The D.C. Circuit held that venue in Washington, D.C., was proper for all four counts. For the money-laundering counts, it relied on evidence that an undercover agent conducted Bitcoin Fog transactions from his office in the district. For the unlicensed money-transmission counts, it found sufficient evidence that Bitcoin Fog had served customers there. Venue is a threshold issue in federal criminal cases because it determines where a defendant may be tried.

Prosecutors said the Bitcoin Fog ruling “directly supports” their position in Storm's case, arguing that Tornado Cash activity in Manhattan was sufficient to establish venue in the Southern District of New York for Storm's money-laundering and unlicensed money-transmission conspiracy charges. They pointed to testimony from Shakeeb Ahmed, who said 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 retrial on the money-laundering and sanctions conspiracy counts on which the jury deadlocked 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 but deadlocked on the money-laundering and sanctions-conspiracy charges. Storm filed his post-trial motion for acquittal in September 2025, arguing that prosecutors failed to prove he intended to help criminals misuse Tornado Cash.

DOJ leans on Bitcoin Fog ruling in New York argument

In his 2025 acquittal motion, Storm argued that Ahmed's use of Tornado Cash from his Manhattan apartment was not enough to establish venue in New York because the transactions did not further the alleged conspiracy.

Prosecutors countered that even short-lived deposits can help a mixer by increasing the pool of transactions used to obscure the movement of funds. They said that reasoning applies to Ahmed's Tornado Cash activity and supports their argument that his use of the service furthered the alleged conspiracy.

The exchange narrows to how much weight a single user's activity in a district can carry when prosecutors establish venue against the person who built the tool.

Storm criticized the filing in a post on X on Monday, saying, “The DOJ is still coming after me with everything it has.”

He also cited the Treasury Department's Monday announcement that it would withdraw its proposed crypto-mixer rule, arguing that the government is taking conflicting approaches to crypto privacy tools — two developments that arrived on the same day.

Source: Cointelegraph