Immediately, the Southern District of New York (SDNY) hosted a remaining standing convention listening to for the Twister Money case, the trial for which begins this Monday, 7/14.
The listening to was held nearly, and attendees included Decide Katherine Polk Failla (the decide presiding over the trial), Twister Money co-founder Roman Storm, and members of the protection and prosecution.
Storm is going through three fees: conspiracy to commit cash laundering, conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise, and conspiracy to commit sanctions violations.
The principle matters mentioned within the listening to included:
- the grounds for the New York court docket turning into the venue for the trial
- Storm’s affect over a Bloomberg reporter who reported on Twister Money in March 2020
- whether or not or not all actions by the Twister Money co-founders and builders to maintain Twister Money operating furthered the conspiracies in Storm’s indictment
- the admissibility of the info extracted from Twister Money co-founder Alexey Pertsev’s cellphone
- how Decide Failla plans to focus extra on how Storm ran a for-profit enterprise than the small print of the Twister Money’s crypto mixing software program itself
Earlier than participating on these matters, Decide Failla shared some key particulars in regards to the trial’s proceedings.
Particulars in regards to the Trial
The trial will start Monday morning at 9:30 AM EST, and one of many first gadgets on the docket is jury choice.
Decide Failla famous that the trial is not going to be recorded, broadcasted, or rebroadcasted. (I’ll be there to cowl most, if not all, of it, although!)
She additionally said that she’d prefer to see the trial concluded inside three weeks, although she added that she doesn’t assume it will likely be and that she might have to take a while off from the trial in early August to have fun her sick mom’s birthday.
What’s extra, Decide Failla said that opening statements received’t be made till Tuesday, 7/15.
Why the Twister Money Trial Is Being Held within the SDNY
In accordance with the prosecution, the trial is continuing within the SDNY as a result of Storm operated a web site that facilitated Twister Money transactions from New York Metropolis for a time period.
The prosecution argued that Storm additionally regularly communicated with one of many enterprise capital (VC) principals who funded Twister Money and who was additionally primarily based in New York Metropolis on the time.
The prosecution added that Storm made frequent requests from this VC principal and that the requests weren’t solely associated to funding.
Storm ‘Corrected’ a Bloomberg Reporter
The prosecution defined how, in March 2020, Storm contacted a Bloomberg reporter who’d written a narrative on Twister Money to get the reporter to alter the story in order that the protection wouldn’t have the authorities understand Twister Money in a damaging mild.
They argued that Storm’s talking with the reporter and convincing stated reporter to change the story “made the story inaccurate.”
The protection pushed again, stating that Storm solely contacted the reporter to make sure that “applicable corrections” had been made to the story.
Storm didn’t converse to this matter within the listening to.
All in Furtherance of the Charged Conspiracies?
The prosecution floated the notion that the entire efforts that Storm and his co-founders made in working their for-profit enterprise that utilized the Twister Money know-how furthered the entire conspiracies with which Storm has been charged.
One of many efforts that the prosecution cited was Storm and his co-founders encouraging U.S.-based Twister Money customers to make use of the service, thereby creating an even bigger pool of capital for the cash that North Korean hackers put by way of the software program to combine with (making it simpler for the funds to be anonymized).
The decide pushed again because the prosecution made this argument, asking the prosecution to make clear whether or not or not it it believed that something the Twister Money co-founders did to maintain their enterprise afloat furthered the conspiracies with which Storm has been charged.
This gave the prosecution pause, and, on this second, one of many protection attorneys moved to dismiss the indictment in opposition to Storm attributable to an absence of venue.
The decide swiftly denied the movement earlier than claiming that such a request had annoyed her a lot in order that it was inflicting her to “escape in hives.”
Graykey Progress Report
All through the listening to, Decide Failla introduced up the Graykey knowledge extraction from Alexey Pertsev’s cellphone. (Pertsev was sentenced to 5 years in jail within the Netherlands for his involvement with Twister Money.)
Towards the latter a part of the listening to, she requested each the prosecution and protection if they’d questions on Pertsev’s cellphone after which raised questions on whether or not or not the info extracted from Pertsev’s cellphone is admissible. She determined to defer her choice on the matter till trial.
She then requested that each the prosecution and protection evaluate the info in query in addition to the method by which it was obtained and put together to answer the problem in the course of the trial.
Specializing in the Entrance Finish
Decide Failla was clear that a minimum of the start of the trial will not be going to be targeted on Twister Money as a mixing service, however extra on the web site, the front-end interface, that Storm created to facilitate transactions by way of the Twister Money software program.
“[We’re] not going to consider crypto mixing,” stated the decide.
Nevertheless, she did say that she was ready for a response from the protection about what she had written and submitted to the court docket about crypto mixing companies.
Witnesses and Motions In Limine
Apart from the problems above, the listening to’s attendees mentioned the witnesses within the case and the supplemental motions in limine (people who aren’t made public earlier than or throughout a trial as a result of they’re irrelevant, prejudicial, or inadmissible).
Not one of the names of the witnesses had been disclosed within the listening to, although, the prosecution talked about that “witness #1” had lately been recognized and that they’d interviewed this witness.
The decide acknowledged the protection’s request to exclude sure supplies associated to witness #1.
A number of motions in limine had been mentioned. Throughout this portion of the listening to, the decide knowledgeable the prosecution that the witnesses shouldn’t do issues comparable to focus on the emotional stress they endured from having the funds they put by way of Twister Money frozen.
As an alternative, she stated that she desire witnesses who had been victims of getting their funds frozen share whether or not or not they reached out to the Twister Money group in efforts to have their funds unfrozen.
What Wasn’t Mentioned
At no level throughout at present’s listening to was it introduced up that the U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of International Asset Management (OFAC) has eliminated Twister Money from it’s sanctions listing, nor that a court docket lately dropped Coin Middle’s enchantment to OFAC relating to this matter.
