1 month ago
NEW YORK, New York — The justice overseeing the transgression lawsuit against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm said Tuesday she volition not let the verdict successful another, related case, Van Loon vs. Department of the Treasury, to beryllium discussed during Storm’s upcoming trial.
“The words ‘Van Loon’ are not going to amusement up successful this trial,” District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said during a Tuesday proceeding successful Manhattan.
The proceeding — a final, in-person presumption league earlier Storm’s proceedings begins connected June 14 — mostly focused connected motions successful limine (a benignant of pretrial question to exclude definite grounds oregon arguments, successful this lawsuit mostly witnesser testimony, from being allowed during trial) from some prosecutors and Storm’s defence team. After proceeding treatment from some sides, Failla decided to regularisation connected immoderate of the motions successful limine connected Tuesday afternoon, arsenic good arsenic during telephone conferences aboriginal this week.
Though the justice has not yet made up her caput connected which witnesses volition beryllium allowed to attest during Storm’s trial, she was steadfast successful her determination to preclude grounds astir the Van Loon case, which acrophobic the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control’s (OFAC) quality to authorisation Tornado Cash. After years of backmost and forth, OFAC delisted Tornado Cash successful March. A national justice successful Texas past recovered that OFAC’s sanctioning of Tornado Cash was amerciable and prohibited it from relisting the privateness instrumentality successful the future.
Read more: TORN Spikes 5% After US Appeals Court Okays End of Another Tornado Cash Lawsuit
Failla said her caput was not yet made up connected whether to let either broadside to sermon OFAC’s sanctions against Tornado Cash, expressing interest that it would confuse the jury.
Storm’s lawyers told the tribunal that they’d similar the sanctions to beryllium excluded from witnesser grounds and closing arguments during trial, but prosecutors said that it would beryllium hard to navigate important evidence, specified arsenic Storm’s alleged behaviour (including definite Google searches, selling $12 cardinal worthy of TORN tokens, and ceding power of Tornado Cash to a decentralized entity) aft OFAC initially sanctioned Tornado Cash without treatment the sanctions themselves.
Though not made successful a ceremonial ruling, Failla urged some the defence and prosecution to bounds their references to North Korea’s weapons of wide demolition (WMD) program. A cardinal portion of the government’s statement is that Tornado Cash facilitated wealth laundering for the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s state-sanctioned hacking group.
The trial, initially slated to tally 2 weeks but present expected to spell for a afloat month, volition commencement connected July 14 successful Manhattan.
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