New York, New York – The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Treasury Department (OFAC) The sanctions against the Cash Tornado Privacy Tool can not be discussed in the next trial of the Roman Storm developer, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
In a status conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, the district judge Katherine Polk Failla initially stirred whether he would allow experts witnesses to testify about the sanctions, which were initially imposed in August 2022, they eliminated this march and subsequently found illegal by a Texas court.
After listening to the arguments of the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense, Failla decided to grant the motion of Storm in Limine moving to prohibit the testimony about the sanctions completely, arguing that it would simply be too confusing for a jury to do what she described as the “mental gymnastics” of understanding why the sanctions were imposed and finally eliminated.
“I am going to prevent references to the sanctions of the Ofac of August 2022,” Failla said, with the warning that he was leaving open the possibility of a “unicorn document”, a key evidence of the Prosecutor’s Office that it depended on the alleged behavior of Storm after the sanctions were imposed, which could change his mind before the trial begins. Failla gave prosecutors until Wednesday to present evidence of this type. The judge had ruled on Tuesday early that the parties could not discuss the case of the department of Van Loon v. Treasure, which finally led to the sanctions that retired.
The rest of the storm movements in Limine (A type of motion prior to the trial to exclude certain evidence or arguments that are allowed during the trial) They were denied, including a motion to prevent references to the piracy group sanctioned by North Korea, the Lázaro Group, and a motion to prevent “inflammatory characterizations” of storm torn sales. Early in the day, prosecutors said they planned to introduce evidence demonstrating that Storm benefited generously from their participation in Tornado cash, including the alleged purchase of multiple homes and the sale of torn tokens for a torn value after Ofac sanctioned in tornado cash.
Prosecutors said they do not plan to argue in the trial that Storm violated the Bank’s Secretation Law (BSA) By not implementing a custom/anti-launch of money protocol for tornado cash, only to express his testimony of expert witnesses that he could have and choose not to do so.
Failla also failed to allow the government to produce evidence of the telephone of the story developer of Storm Alexey Pertsev. The Dutch government allowed a federal investigation office of the United States. (FBI) Agent to see a report of the Pertsev phone content, from which the agent made his own report with selected information. Storm’s defense tried to eliminate evidence from the Pertsev telephone, arguing that the report was selected by cherries and impossible to authenticate, but the judge put on the side of the Prosecutor’s Office, ruling that the report was admissible.
After a long way and forth between the parties on their respective expert witnesses, Failla ruled that all witnesses could testify, although she put some railings on certain witnesses for both parties.
It is not yet clear if Storm will testify in his own defense, although Failla said on Tuesday that, if he took the position, he will not be allowed to argue that he had protections of the first amendment in his work with Tornado Cash.
Failla said that Storm was free to discuss his belief in privacy rights, but said: “I do not believe that freedom of expression or the rights of the first amendment should arise in this trial.”
A final conference prior to the trial will be held telephone at 3 pm et on Friday. Storm’s trial is scheduled to start on June 14 and is expected to work for four weeks.
