Judge Bars Van Loon Case Discussion in Tornado Cash Trial

In a significant development in the legal proceedings surrounding Tornado Cash, District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that the verdict in the Van Loon vs. Department of the Treasury case would not be discussed during the upcoming trial of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. This decision was made during a Tuesday hearing in Manhattan, where Failla explicitly stated, “The words ‘Van Loon’ are not going to show up in this trial.”

The hearing, which was a final, in-person status conference before Storm’s trial begins on July 14, primarily focused on motions in limine. These motions are pretrial requests to exclude certain evidence or arguments, particularly witness testimony, from being presented during the trial. Both the prosecution and Storm’s defense team presented their arguments, and Failla decided to rule on some of these motions during the hearing and through telephone conferences later in the week.

While the judge has not yet determined which witnesses will be allowed to testify, she was clear in her decision to exclude any testimony related to the Van Loon case. This case involved the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control’s (OFAC) ability to sanction Tornado Cash. After years of legal back-and-forth, OFAC delisted Tornado Cash in March, and a federal judge in Texas subsequently ruled that OFAC’s sanctioning of Tornado Cash was illegal, prohibiting it from relisting the privacy tool in the future.

Failla expressed concern that discussing OFAC’s sanctions against Tornado Cash could confuse the jury. Storm’s legal team preferred to exclude the sanctions from witness testimony and closing arguments, while prosecutors argued that it would be challenging to present key evidence, such as Storm’s alleged behavior after the initial sanctions, without mentioning the sanctions themselves. This evidence includes certain Google searches, the sale of $12 million worth of TORN tokens, and the transfer of control of Tornado Cash to a decentralized entity.

Additionally, Failla urged both the defense and prosecution to limit their references to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. The government’s case hinges on the allegation that Tornado Cash facilitated money laundering for the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s state-sanctioned hacking group. The trial, initially expected to last two weeks, is now anticipated to extend for a full month, starting on July 14 in Manhattan.