US federal prosecutors have sent the judge in the case of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm a new argument. They pointed to an appeals court ruling in the case of the Bitcoin Fog mixer to show that Storm is being tried in New York properly. The judge has not yet decided on his motion for acquittal.
What the prosecutors wrote
Prosecutors filed the letter to Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York on Monday, October 5. They cite the September 25 ruling of the D.C. Circuit, which upheld the conviction of Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov. He was sentenced to 150 months in prison, or 12.5 years.
According to Decrypt and Cointelegraph, prosecutors say the ruling "directly supports" their position. Tornado Cash and Bitcoin Fog are both mixers. Such services pool funds from many users to break the onchain link between sender and recipient, and Tornado Cash runs on Ethereum.
The US Constitution requires a crime to be tried where at least part of it took place. That is why venue became one of the main topics in Storm's case.
Why prosecutors tie the case to Manhattan
In Sterlingov's case the court found Washington to be the proper venue for all four counts. For the money-laundering counts it relied on a sting: a special agent deposited about $250 in bitcoin into Bitcoin Fog from his Washington office and withdrew almost all of it the next day. For the unlicensed money-transmitting counts, the court found it enough that the service had served customers in the district.
Prosecutors carry this logic over to Shakeeb Ahmed, a Tornado Cash user who testified that he accessed the service "in [his] apartment in Manhattan." His deposit, the letter says, stayed in the pool for "a couple days", like the agent's contribution in the Bitcoin Fog case.
Storm's defense argued that Ahmed's funds sat in the pool too briefly to help any conspiracy. Lawyer Brian Klein said at the April hearing that Ahmed used Tornado Cash before committing his crime and did not use it for the hack itself. Prosecutors reply that even short deposits help a mixer, because they enlarge the pool of transactions used to hide the movement of funds.
Where the trial stands and what Storm says
A jury convicted Storm in August 2025 of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. On the money-laundering and sanctions-conspiracy counts it deadlocked. Storm filed his motion for acquittal in September 2025 and argues that the prosecution failed to prove he intended to help criminals. The hearing took place in April 2026.
- A retrial on the two counts where the jury split is scheduled for April 26, 2027, although prosecutors had asked to start this month.
- Prosecutor Ben Arad said at the April hearing that once Tornado Cash largely served criminals, even legitimate transactions became illegitimate.
- Judge Failla replied that she is concerned by such a theory.
Storm posted the prosecutors' letter on X and wrote that the DOJ is still coming after him with everything it has, noting that 1,139 days have passed since his arrest. He also recalled that on Monday FinCEN withdrew its 2023 proposal on reporting transactions with mixers. The agency admitted that a broad definition of mixing "could have a chilling effect on legitimate activity" but added that illicit actors continue to use mixers.
What comes next
Judge Failla has not yet ruled on the motion for acquittal. If she denies it, the retrial on the two counts stays set for April 2027.
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