Fake Evidence in the Bitcoin Fog Case: Peter Todd Exposes Screenshot Substitution from the Book
Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd stated that in the case of Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, prosecutors presented a completely fabricated piece of evidence to the court. According to him, the screenshot, presented as the defendant's personal correspondence, actually turned out to be a fragment of a book that Sterlingov did not write.
As an analyst closely following the development of crypto-jurisdiction, I find this case particularly telling. We are witnessing not just a technical error, but a systemic failure in the procedure for verifying evidence, which calls into question the entire chain of accusations in one of the most high-profile trials of recent years.
How a screenshot from a book became "evidence"
Todd, a renowned cryptographer and long-time contributor to Bitcoin Core development, drew attention to a glaring inconsistency in the case materials. The prosecution presented a screenshot allegedly of Sterlingov's correspondence. However, it turned out that this text was taken from the e-book "The Message Game" by Ace White.
The disputed fragment contained elaborate remarks about a "beard," "intelligence above room temperature," and a reference to a scene from the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street." Sterlingov's defense managed to identify the substitution in time. As Todd noted, the evidence was included among thousands of other materials, and the defendant's team was lucky to spot the fake.
During the actual trial, the prosecution witness, under direct examination by the prosecutor, admitted that she mistakenly took the book fragment for correspondence and stated that she would not have given such testimony had she known the text's origin. Todd formulated his assessment extremely sharply: in his opinion, for such actions against the justice system, someone should have faced severe punishment, but no consequences ensued.
Context of the Bitcoin Fog case
Sterlingov's case has become one of the most controversial in the crypto industry. In March 2024, a jury in Washington found him guilty of money laundering and operating an unlicensed service. According to the prosecution, Sterlingov operated the Bitcoin Fog mixer from 2011 to 2021. The agency claims that over 1.2 million BTC, worth approximately $400 million, passed through the service, a significant portion of which was linked to darknet markets.
The defendant himself pleaded not guilty, insisting that he was only a user of the service, not its operator. The defense challenged the reliability of the methods on which the accusation was built. A key role in the trial was played by on-chain analysis from the company Chainalysis. The company itself viewed the outcome of the case as confirmation of the admissibility of its analytical methods in court, while independent experts doubted the sufficiency of the evidence.
My conclusion as an analyst: the story of the fake evidence is a wake-up call for the entire system. Even a large array of digital evidence requires thorough verification of each element. If the prosecution allows such errors in a high-profile case, it undermines trust in the legitimacy of the entire process and provides a powerful argument for critics who claim that justice in the crypto sphere often works "by guesswork" rather than on facts.