US prosecutors within the legal case towards Twister Money co-founder and developer Roman Storm provided testimony from an Inside Income Service (IRS) agent as they put together to relaxation their case on Thursday.
Based on reporting from Inside Metropolis Press on Wednesday, IRS Prison Investigation Particular Agent Stephan George testified he had reviewed transaction data related to cryptocurrency exchanges Crypto.com and Binance.
George reportedly mentioned that Storm “[had] management” over funds after an account related to Binance despatched crypto to Twister Money sensible contract addresses, based mostly on communications between the co-founders: Storm, Alexey Pertsey and Roman Semenov.
The testimony adopted a problem from Storm’s attorneys, which sought to exclude it based mostly on a evaluate of Hanfeng Lin’s expertise — a sufferer of a romance rip-off who testified earlier within the trial about stolen crypto funds despatched via Twister Money. Storm’s legal professionals recommended that they might transfer for a mistrial after analysis recommended not one of the funds went to the crypto mixing service.
“Whereas his accounting background may need offered him the experience to conduct the evaluation he was retained to do, it doesn’t qualify him to testify concerning the tracing of cryptocurrency legal proceeds which the federal government is now proposing, which incorporates not solely tracing but in addition attributing management over varied pockets addresses to the alleged hacker, the place the identification of accounts is at problem,” mentioned Storm’s authorized group in a Tuesday submitting.
The problem of whether or not Storm had the flexibility to manage Twister Money by blocking or disincentivizing illicit funds from being laundered, because the prosecution alleges, is central to the arguments in his legal case.
One other authorities witness was anticipated to testify as as to if Storm may have modified the platform to discourage legal exercise, however reportedly primarily mentioned the mixer’s habits in response to sanctions.
Associated: What you’ll want to learn about Roman Storm’s Twister Money trial
Protection legal professionals put together to current their case
Storm faces fees of cash laundering, conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitter and conspiracy to violate US sanctions associated to his function at Twister Money. US prosecutors mentioned they anticipated to wrap up their case on Thursday “earlier than lunch,” after which period Storm’s attorneys will start to current their protection.
Based on Inside Metropolis Press, Storm’s legal professionals plan to name “two or three docs” to testify, and probably an skilled witness from Chainalysis.
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