At the moment, on day six of the Twister Money trial, FBI Particular Agent Joel DeCapua, testified on the request of the prosecution, who referred to as on the agent due to his expertise with and abilities in tracing crypto belongings. (DeCapua has been monitoring crypto and digital belongings for the FBI for 15 years.)
DeCapua highlighted how, throughout sure intervals of time between September 1, 2020 and August 8, 2022 (with segments starting from someday to some weeks), as a lot as 55% p.c of the funds that moved via Twister Money have been these obtained via prison exercise (e.g., hacks).
Nonetheless, the protection identified throughout their cross examination of DeCapua, that solely 10% of the funds that moved via Twister Money transactions between September 1, 2020 and August 8, 2022 have been obtained by way of confirmed prison exercise.
Particular Agent DeCapua Takes The Stand
DeCapua took the stand on the onset of the trial day.
The prosecution walked him via an inventory of 16 incidents — hacks of crypto protocols and exchanges, the biggest of which being the Ronin Bridge exploit — and had him verify that some share of the funds from these hacks have been put via Twister Money to clean them. DeCapua and the prosecution highlighted that over $1 billion in stolen funds had moved via Twister Money.
The prosecution, with the assistance of DeCapua, detailed how the stolen funds moved via Twister Money, all whereas the FBI and the hacked entities or protocols had little recourse in stopping the criminals concerned.
The prosecution identified how from April 22, 2022 to Might 19, 2022, 55% of Twister Money deposits have been funds from the Ronin hack, whereas spikes in illicitly obtained funds flowing via Twister Money additionally occurred after exploits such because the BitMart hack, the Beanstalk hack and the Concord Horizon hack.
DeCapua said that it was at all times a “banner day” for Twister Money every time hackers washed funds utilizing the protocol.
The Cross-Examination of Particular Agent DeCapua
Throughout the protection’s cross examination of DeCapua, he shared that the FBI typically employs the companies of third occasion blockchain analytics firms like Chainalysis, which is thought to have offered flawed evaluation.
The protection additionally shared Telegram messages with the courtroom during which the authorized crew at BitMart requested the Twister Money crew to intervene in efforts to retrieve the funds stolen from the corporate, to which the Twister Money crew replied that they couldn’t as a result of the protocol was decentralized.
Quickly after, the protection referenced pie charts created by DeCapua, offered by the prosecution, that illustrated the biggest quantities of prison funds that flowed via Twister Money through the days or even weeks after main crypto hacks.
The protection then made the purpose that outdoors of those main upticks in illicitly obtained funds shifting via Twister Money, the protocol didn’t see a lot of such exercise. They then made the aforementioned level that solely 10% of funds that moved via Twister Money within the two-year timeframe in query have been from criminals.
Earlier than concluding the cross-examination, the protection paralleled Twister Money to privateness instruments like VPNs and WhatsApp, software program that each criminals and non-criminals alike use to protect their privateness.
Whereas DeCapua didn’t disagree with this level, he did supply an odd assertion in response to the protection asking him if on a regular basis individuals use VPNs to protect their privateness whereas shopping the web.
“It might be actually unusual,” mentioned DeCapua. “I don’t assume an everyday individual would use a VPN of their [everyday] operations.”
The NTU Capital Challenge
Towards the start of the protection’s cross-examination of DeCapua, additionally they introduced up the chance that the funds stolen from the primary witness who took the stand on the trial, Hanfeng Lin, by no means moved via Twister Money.
These funds have been stolen by members of a fraudulent entity referred to as NTU Capital, and the notion that these funds might have by no means moved via Twister Money was first put ahead by blockchain sleuth Taylor Monahan, founding father of MyEtherWallet and safety specialist at MetaMask, over the weekend.
The prosecution didn’t object to the protection’s proposal that these funds might by no means have been washed by way of Twister Money through the cross-examination, however they did push again on it towards the top of the trial day.
They famous that they’d offered supplemental disclosure on the difficulty the night time earlier than (round midnight) and that an IRS agent with a specialization in tracing funds that they deliberate to have testify would present how the funds stolen from Ms. Lin have been, the truth is, put via Twister Money after “a couple of hops.”
The protection made the case that Ms. Lin’s testimony ought to be stricken from the document earlier than stating that they’re contemplating a mistrial movement.
The trial will resume tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. EST. The prosecution did make not clear whether or not it can name the IRS agent it referenced to the stand tomorrow or later within the week, although.