Attorneys representing Twister Money co-founder and developer Roman Storm have advised they might request a quick continuance for his legal trial if a decide denies a movement to exclude a specific witness.
In a Thursday submitting within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Storm’s authorized group moved to exclude testimony from an unnamed witness who’s the “claimed perpetrator of an alleged hack who allegedly used Twister Money.” His attorneys argued that prosecutors disclosed the witness after a scheduled deadline, additionally claiming their testimony might be “extremely prejudicial” to Storm.
“[The testimony] could be unfairly prejudicial as it might seemingly confuse and mislead the jurors into believing that Mr. Storm was concerned within the underlying purported hack or supposed to facilitate it, which isn’t true,” mentioned the Thursday submitting. “The testimony would even be unfairly prejudicial as a result of it’s prone to evoke an indignant response from jurors, which might seemingly spill over to Mr. Storm.”
The legal professionals added:
“[T]his Courtroom ought to exclude [the witness]. If this Courtroom denies this movement, Mr. Storm reserves the fitting to request a quick continuance of the trial date.”
If Storm’s authorized group had been to request a continuance on the eleventh hour, it’s unclear if Decide Katherine Failla would grant it. The Twister Money co-founder’s legal trial is scheduled to start jury choice on Monday, roughly two years after he was indicted on costs of cash laundering, conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitter and conspiracy to violate US sanctions.
Associated: Decide alerts Twister Money sanctions could also be barred from Roman Storm trial
The submitting got here lower than 24 hours after interim SDNY US legal professional Jay Clayton pushed again towards Storm’s opposition for sure witnesses, whom he referred to as “victims” of crimes involving Twister Money. Failla is prone to subject a ruling on the motions by Friday, forward of the trial begin date.
“SDNY is attempting to crush me, blocking each skilled witness,” mentioned Storm in a June 13 X put up. “If I lose, DeFi dies with me.”
Continued help from crypto and blockchain figures
Since Storm’s 2023 indictment, many within the crypto business have defended the Twister Money co-founder, arguing that creating the code for the blending service was not against the law. Paradigm founder Matt Huang, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum Basis and others contributed hundreds of {dollars} to Storm’s authorized fund in preparation for trial.
Alexey Pertsev, one other Twister Money co-founder and developer, was arrested, tried and located responsible of cash laundering associated to the blending service within the Netherlands. He was sentenced to greater than 5 years in jail in 2024.
On the time of publication, the one different important determine tied to Twister Money who has prevented court docket was Roman Semenov, a co-founder and developer named in the identical indictment as Storm. Semenov was nonetheless at giant on the time of publication, and stories advised he could have gone into hiding in Russia.
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