Right this moment, on day six of the Twister Money 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 expertise 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 sooner or later to some weeks), as a lot as 55% p.c of the funds that moved by way of Twister Money have been these obtained by way of felony exercise (e.g., hacks).
Nonetheless, the protection identified throughout their cross examination of DeCapua, that solely 10% of the funds that moved by way of Twister Money transactions between September 1, 2020 and August 8, 2022 have been obtained by way of confirmed felony exercise.
Particular Agent DeCapua Takes The Stand
DeCapua took the stand on the onset of the trial day.
The prosecution walked him by way of an inventory of 16 incidents — hacks of crypto protocols and exchanges, the most important of which being the Ronin Bridge exploit — and had him verify that some share of the funds from these hacks have been put by way of Twister Money to scrub them. DeCapua and the prosecution highlighted that over $1 billion in stolen funds had moved by way of Twister Money.
The prosecution, with the assistance of DeCapua, detailed how the stolen funds moved by way 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 Could 19, 2022, 55% of Twister Money deposits have been funds from the Ronin hack, whereas spikes in illicitly obtained funds flowing by way of Twister Money additionally occurred after exploits such because the BitMart hack, the Beanstalk hack, and the Concord Horizon hack.
DeCapua said that it was all the time a “banner day” for Twister Money at any time when hackers washed funds utilizing the protocol.
The Cross-Examination of Particular Agent DeCapua
Through the protection’s cross examination of DeCapua, he shared that the FBI typically employs the providers of third get together blockchain analytics corporations like Chainalysis, which is understood to have offered flawed evaluation.
The protection additionally shared Telegram messages with the courtroom during which the authorized workforce at BitMart requested the Twister Money workforce to intervene in efforts to retrieve the funds stolen from the corporate to which the Twister Money workforce replied that they couldn’t as a result of the protocol was decentralized.
Quickly after, the protection referenced pie charts created by DeCapua and offered by the prosecution that illustrated the most important quantities of felony funds that flowed by way of Twister Money throughout the days or perhaps weeks after main crypto hacks.
The protection then made the purpose that exterior of those main upticks in illicitly obtained funds shifting by way 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 way of Twister Money within the two yr time-frame 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 supply an odd assertion in response to the protection asking him if on a regular basis individuals use VPNs to protect their privateness whereas shopping the web.
“It will be actually unusual,” stated DeCapua. “I don’t assume a daily particular person would use a VPN of their [everyday] operations.”
The NTU Capital Concern
Towards the start of the protection’s cross-examination of DeCapua, in addition they introduced up the likelihood that the funds stolen from the primary witness who took the stand on the trial, Hanfeng Lin, by no means moved by way of Twister Money.
These funds have been stolen by a members of a fraudulent entity known as NTU Capital, and the notion that these funds could have by no means moved by way of Twister Money was first put ahead by blockchain sleuth Tay Vano over the weekend.
The prosecution didn’t object to the protection’s proposal that these funds could by no means have been washed by way of Twister Money throughout the cross-examination, however they did push again on it towards the top of the trial day.
They famous that they’d offered supplemental disclosure on the problem the evening 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 reality, put by way of Twister Money after “just a few hops.”
The protection made the case that Ms. Lin’s testimony needs to be stricken from the file earlier than stating that they’re contemplating a mistrial movement.
