Roman Sterlingov Is Wrongfully Accused Of Operating Bitcoin Fog: Report

Recently, Twitter user Mike Hassard dug up the case of Roman Sterlingov, accused of operating Bitcoin Fog, a Bitcoin mixing service. While Roman has incorporated mixing into his personal privacy practices when transferring Bitcoin, he is wrongfully accused of operating the service.

Roman Sterlingov is wrongfully accused of operating Bitcoin Fog, a #Bitcoin mixing service. This is the first in a series of threads I will post in an effort to spread word of this unjust prosecution.

— Mike Hassard (@mikehassard) May 14, 2023

The government has seized all his remaining assets, and he remains trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia.

Following the thread, Roman moved from Russia to Jönköping with his mother in 2003 and excelled in math and science at school. In 2010, he first heard about Bitcoin and was excited by the new technology. He learned how to set up wallets and funded them with his paycheck. Roman traveled to Bitcoin meetups across Europe, where he met like-minded individuals and helped them set up their own wallets. He purchased Bitcoin in bulk and sold it peer-to-peer to newcomers at the meetups, allowing them begin their own Bitcoin journeys.

At one of these meetups, someone suggested that Roman mix his Bitcoin before selling it to people he didn’t know. Roman learned that his wallet address became public when he made Bitcoin transactions. He worried that someone could target him and steal his funds. This led him to incorporate mixing into his personal privacy practices when transferring Bitcoin.

Roman created a Kraken account in 2014 and began using it as his daily Bitcoin account. By this time, Bitcoin had appreciated to approximately $475. Roman left his job and lived off the appreciation of his investment. He used Bitcoin Fog to send Bitcoin from his early wallets, through Bitcoin Fog, to a Kraken account held in his real name with KYC authentication.

In 2017, Roman realized that he had spent much of his Bitcoin and had not accumulated any new Bitcoin. He tried his hand at trading and multiple business ventures, including a VPN, a music studio, and a life coaching business, but all his efforts failed.

In April 2021, Roman flew to LAX to enroll in a commercial pilot licensing class in California. However, he was arrested by the FBI and accused of operating Bitcoin Fog for the past seven years. He was confused and shocked to hear that he was accused of creating and operating Bitcoin Fog. A Magistrate judge ordered Roman to be “detained indefinitely,” and he was transferred to Northern Neck Regional Jail, where he remains.

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