DOJ Cites Bitcoin Fog Appeals Ruling Against Roman Storm's Acquittal Bid in Tornado Cash Case

Published October 7, 2026, 11:35 UTC. Based on a supplemental authority filing by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in the Roman Storm case (Oct. 5, 2026) and reporting by Cointelegraph, The Defiant and CryptoCompass.

Federal prosecutors are leaning on a mixer conviction from a different courtroom to keep the Tornado Cash case alive. In a Monday filing, the Justice Department's Southern District of New York office cited the Sept. 25 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that affirmed the convictions and sentence of Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, Cointelegraph reported.

The Sept. 25 Bitcoin Fog ruling

The D.C. Circuit panel upheld Sterlingov's convictions on all four counts and ruled that Washington, D.C. was a proper venue for each, according to Cointelegraph's account of the opinion. For the money-laundering counts, the court pointed to evidence that an undercover agent ran Bitcoin Fog transactions from his D.C. office. For the unlicensed money-transmission counts, the court found sufficient evidence that Bitcoin Fog served customers in the district.

Prosecutors told the court in Storm's case that the Bitcoin Fog ruling "directly supports" their position, Cointelegraph reported. Their argument: Tornado Cash activity in Manhattan was enough to establish venue in the Southern District of New York for Storm's money-laundering and unlicensed money-transmission conspiracy charges. The filing pointed to testimony from Shakeeb Ahmed, who told jurors he used Tornado Cash from his Manhattan apartment.

The venue fight over a Manhattan apartment

Venue has been one of Storm's main lines of attack. In his September 2025 acquittal motion, Storm argued that Ahmed's Manhattan use of Tornado Cash could not establish venue in New York because those transactions did not further the alleged conspiracy, according to Cointelegraph.

Prosecutors answered that even short-lived deposits help a mixer by swelling the pool of transactions used to obscure fund movements, and said that logic covers Ahmed's Tornado Cash activity and shows his use of the service furthered the alleged conspiracy, Cointelegraph reported.

The August 2025 split verdict and the April 2027 retrial

A jury convicted Storm in August 2025 on one count of conspiring to run an unlicensed money-transmitting business that the SDNY said moved more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds, a charge carrying up to five years in prison, while deadlocking on the more serious money-laundering and sanctions-evasion conspiracy counts, Cointelegraph and CryptoCompass reported. The money-laundering and sanctions charges each carry up to 20 years.

Storm filed his post-trial acquittal motion in September 2025, arguing prosecutors never proved he intended to help criminals misuse Tornado Cash, Cointelegraph reported. Judge Katherine Polk Failla heard arguments on the motion in April 2026 and has not ruled. If the remaining charges stay pending, Storm faces a retrial starting April 26, 2027, and a conviction on both open counts could bring up to 40 years, according to CryptoCompass.

The mixer crackdown the DOJ won't drop

The new filing lands days after the other side of Washington blinked on mixers. MABOnChain reported on October 6 that FinCEN withdrew its 2020 proposal to track crypto sent to personal wallets and its 2023 proposal aimed at crypto mixers. The Defiant framed the contrast bluntly: FinCEN, the rulemaker, is stepping back while SDNY, the prosecutor, is leaning in.

Storm seized on the tension himself. Responding to the filing in an X post on Monday, he wrote, "The DOJ is still coming after me with everything it has," Cointelegraph reported. He also pointed to the Treasury Department's announcement that it would withdraw its proposed crypto-mixer rule, arguing the government is taking conflicting approaches to privacy tools.

The Justice Department has tried to square that circle before. In August 2025, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said the department works "as prosecutors, not regulators," and would not treat writing code without ill intent as a crime, CryptoCompass reported.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, supplemental authority filing in U.S. v. Storm (Oct. 5, 2026), primary source
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, opinion affirming U.S. v. Sterlingov (Sept. 25, 2026), primary source
• Cointelegraph, DOJ Cites Bitcoin Fog Ruling Against Roman Storm Acquittal Bid (Oct. 7, 2026), secondary source
• The Defiant, DOJ Presses Roman Storm Case as FinCEN Drops Mixer Proposal (Oct. 6, 2026), secondary source
• CryptoCompass, SDNY Presses Its Case Against Roman Storm Despite FinCEN Dropping Mixer Crackdown (Oct. 6, 2026), secondary source