Right now, on day six of the Tornado Cash trial, FBI Particular Agent Joel DeCapua, testified on the request of the prosecution, who known as on the agent due to his expertise with and abilities in tracing crypto property. (DeCapua has been monitoring crypto and digital property for the FBI for 15 years.)
DeCapua highlighted how, throughout sure durations of time between September 1, 2020 and August 8, 2022 (with segments starting from at some point to some weeks), as a lot as 55% p.c of the funds that moved by means of Twister Money have been these obtained by means of prison exercise (e.g., hacks).
Nevertheless, the protection identified throughout their cross examination of DeCapua, that solely 10% of the funds that moved by means of 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 by means of 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 by means of Twister Money to scrub them. DeCapua and the prosecution highlighted that over $1 billion in stolen funds had moved by means of Twister Money.
The prosecution, with the assistance of DeCapua, detailed how the stolen funds moved by means of 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 by means of Twister Money additionally occurred after exploits such because the BitMart hack, the Beanstalk hack and the Harmony Horizon hack.
DeCapua acknowledged that it was at all times a “banner day” for Twister Money each 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 providers of third occasion blockchain analytics corporations like Chainalysis, which is known to have provided flawed analysis.
The protection additionally shared Telegram messages with the court docket wherein the authorized group at BitMart requested the Twister Money group to intervene in efforts to retrieve the funds stolen from the corporate, to which the Twister Money group replied that they couldn’t as a result of the protocol was decentralized.
Quickly after, the protection referenced pie charts created by DeCapua, introduced by the prosecution, that illustrated the biggest quantities of prison funds that flowed by means of Twister Money throughout the days or perhaps weeks after main crypto hacks.
The protection then made the purpose that outdoors of those main upticks in illicitly obtained funds shifting by means of 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 by means of 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 provide an odd assertion in response to the protection asking him if on a regular basis folks use VPNs to protect their privateness whereas shopping the web.
“It will be actually unusual,” stated DeCapua. “I don’t assume an everyday particular person would use a VPN of their [everyday] operations.”
The NTU Capital Difficulty
Towards the start of the protection’s cross-examination of DeCapua, in addition 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 by means of Twister Money.
These funds have been stolen by members of a fraudulent entity known as NTU Capital, and the notion that these funds might have by no means moved by means of 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 throughout the cross-examination, however they did push again on it towards the tip 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, in actual fact, put by means of Twister Money after “just a few hops.”
The protection made the case that Ms. Lin’s testimony ought to be stricken from the report 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.