US federal penalized Roman Sterlingov with prison and a ‘forfeiture money judgment’ for Bitcoin laundering.
The convict headed operations of the darknet mixer for over a decade, starting in 2011
.
The Washington D.C. court sentenced Roman Sterlingov — founder of Bitcoin Fog, the “darknet’s longest-running cryptocurrency mixer” — to 12 years and 6 months for laundering over 1.2 million BTC in “dirty money” on the darknet.
Along with his prison term, the court imposed a $395.6 million ‘forfeiture money judgment’ on Sterlingov. It also ordered him to forfeit seized cryptocurrencies and assets valued at approximately $1.76 million.
The US DOJ alleged:
In the official
release
, the DOJ confirmed that Bitcoin Fog received cryptocurrencies from illicit sources, such as drug trafficking, cybercrimes, identity theft, and child sexual abuse material on darknet marketplaces.
Brief Summary of This Bitcoin Laundering Case
Authorities reportedly arrested the crypto mixer founder in Los Angeles in April 2021, and they held him in custody for over three years.
During the trial, the defendants, Roman Sterlingov and his lawyers, denied his involvement in the mixer’s operations and fee collection. During the trial, Sterlingov and his lawyers denied his involvement in the mixer’s operations and fee collection. However, the defendant’s attempt to prove his innocence did not convince the jury.
After a month-long trial in March 2024, the jury convicted him of laundering $400 million in bitcoins (now $91.78 billion) via an “unlicensed money transmitting business.” The jurors found that Sterlingov operated the business from 2011 to 2021. Moreover, the 20- and
30-year sentence
originally proposed was reduced to 12 and a half years.
Significantly, market history records a few other crimes related to crypto mixing services. These include Larry Harmon, who led the crypto mixer Helix, and Ilya Lichtenstein, who was linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Meanwhile, Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm have their trial supposedly in April 2025.
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