DOJ cites Bitcoin Fog appeal to keep Roman Storm conspiracy counts in SDNY
Prosecutors argue Manhattan Tornado Cash usage is enough for venue as Failla weighs a pending acquittal motion.
US prosecutors filed a supplemental authority in Roman Storm’s Tornado Cash case, pointing to the Sept. 25 Bitcoin Fog appellate decision to reinforce their venue theory. The government is arguing that Tornado Cash usage in Manhattan is sufficient to keep key conspiracy counts anchored in the Southern District of New York.
DOJ Drops a New Citation: Bitcoin Fog as Ammo Against Storm’s Acquittal Bid
Federal prosecutors moved to reinforce their opposition to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s post-trial acquittal motion by filing supplemental authority that leans on a fresh appellate win in the Bitcoin Fog case.
The new citation is the Sept. 25, 2026 decision from the D.C. Circuit affirming the convictions and sentence of Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov. The government is using that ruling to argue that venue can be satisfied by in-district activity tied to the charged conduct, even if the alleged scheme is not “centered” in the district.
In the filing, prosecutors said the Bitcoin Fog decision “directly supports” keeping Storm’s money-laundering conspiracy and unlicensed money-transmission conspiracy counts in the Southern District of New York. The timing matters because Storm’s acquittal motion has been argued but not decided, and the venue theory is one of the pressure points that could narrow the case before it heads toward a retrial calendar.
Storm responded publicly on X the same Monday, writing: “The DOJ is still coming after me with everything it has.” He also pointed to a Treasury Department announcement made Monday that it would withdraw a proposed crypto-mixer rule, arguing the government is taking conflicting approaches to crypto privacy tools. The underlying rule and its scope were not detailed in the record provided here.
Venue as the Battleground: How Manhattan Tornado Cash Use Becomes an SDNY Hook
Venue is the geographic requirement that a criminal case be tried in a district tied to the charged conduct. In conspiracy cases, prosecutors often try to satisfy venue by pointing to acts in furtherance of the alleged agreement that occurred inside the district.
DOJ’s hook in Storm’s case is user activity in Manhattan. Prosecutors argue Tornado Cash activity in Manhattan is sufficient to establish venue in SDNY for Storm’s money-laundering and unlicensed money-transmission conspiracy charges. The filing points to testimony from Shakeeb Ahmed that he used Tornado Cash from his Manhattan apartment.
Storm’s counter is narrower and more structural. In his 2025 acquittal motion, he argued Ahmed’s Manhattan transactions were not enough to establish venue because they did not further the alleged conspiracy.
Prosecutors are answering that with a market-microstructure style claim about mixers. Even short-lived deposits, they argue, help a mixer by increasing the pool of transactions used to obscure the movement of funds. Under that framing, Ahmed’s use is not incidental. It is additive to the alleged service the conspiracy is accused of providing, and that makes it usable for venue.
Bitcoin Fog is DOJ’s attempt to make that logic feel less bespoke. In Sterlingov’s case, the D.C. Circuit held venue in Washington, D.C. was proper for all four counts. For the money-laundering counts, the court relied in part on evidence that an undercover agent conducted Bitcoin Fog transactions from a Washington, D.C. office. For the unlicensed money-transmission counts, it found sufficient evidence that Bitcoin Fog served customers in the district. Prosecutors are now mapping that reasoning onto Tornado Cash by treating Manhattan usage as the in-district transaction footprint that anchors SDNY.
Failla’s Pending Call and the April 2027 Retrial Calendar
The procedural posture is the near-term catalyst. A jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. The jury deadlocked on the money-laundering and sanctions-conspiracy charges.
Storm filed his post-trial motion for acquittal in September 2025, arguing prosecutors failed to prove he intended to help criminals misuse Tornado Cash. Judge Katherine Polk Failla heard arguments on that acquittal motion in April 2026 and has not yet ruled.
A retrial on the money-laundering and sanctions conspiracy counts is scheduled for April 26, 2027, if those charges remain pending. Between now and then, the key swing factor is whether Failla dismisses any counts or narrows the government’s theories, including the SDNY venue theory that DOJ is now reinforcing with Bitcoin Fog.
Further filings could also matter. If either side adds more appellate authority beyond Bitcoin Fog, or if prosecutors surface additional examples of Tornado Cash usage tied to Manhattan or SDNY, the venue fight could shift from one witness’s apartment to a broader pattern of in-district conduct.
My Read: Bitcoin Fog Tightens DOJ’s Playbook on Where Mixer Cases Can Be Tried
The threshold that matters is whether Failla accepts DOJ’s framing that Manhattan usage is an act “in furtherance” of the alleged conspiracies, not just a location detail. Bitcoin Fog gives prosecutors a cleaner citation for the idea that in-district transactions and in-district customers can carry venue across multiple counts.
If that venue hook holds, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven. It lowers the bar for anchoring mixer prosecutions in SDNY on user footprint alone, which is the practical change that would outlive Storm’s specific facts.
