NEW YORK — The Manhattan jury tasked with deciding Twister Money developer Roman Storm’s destiny advised the court docket on Wednesday morning that they had been deadlocked, unable to achieve a unanimous verdict on no less than one of many fees.
The observe to District Choose Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York got here on the fourth day of jury deliberations. In response to experiences from Interior Metropolis Press, Storm’s attorneys recommended that the court docket settle for a partial verdict, whereas prosecutors requested that the jury be given an Allen cost — primarily, an instruction from the court docket to proceed deliberating in an try to achieve a unanimous verdict on all fees.
Failla sided with prosecutors, bringing the jury into the courtroom and instructing them to attempt to attain a verdict, however telling them that it’s their proper to not agree or change their opinions, if an settlement actually can’t be reached.
The jury’s notes over the previous a number of days of deliberations have indicated that the jurors are rigorously contemplating all sides of the case, together with among the extra procedural elements like venue. On the primary day of deliberations, the jury requested what proof of venue (principally, the prosecutors’ justification to deliver the case within the Southern District of New York) the prosecutors confirmed the grand jury in 2023 to acquire their indictment.
Yesterday, the jury requested the choose for transcripts from the testimony of an FBI agent who did cell-site evaluation on enterprise capitalist Tom Schmidt of Dragonfly Capital, who invested $900,000 in Twister Money’s mum or dad firm PepperSec Inc. The truth that Schmidt relies in New York was utilized by prosecutors to determine venue — however the jury, in accordance with their observe, appeared hesitant to just accept this logic. Of their observe, they requested for transcripts of the agent’s testimony “to show venue.”
The jury has additionally requested questions on whether or not Storm was legally required to reply to requests for assist from overseas regulation enforcement, and whether or not middleman wallets had been additionally included on the Workplace of International Asset Management’s (OFAC) specially-designated nationals (SDN) checklist.
Storm has been charged with one rely every of conspiracy to commit cash laundering, conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise, and conspiracy to violate worldwide sanctions. If Storm is discovered responsible on all fees, he faces a most sentence of 45 years in jail. Prosecutors say that, via Twister Money, Storm and his colleagues Alexey Pertsev and Roman Semenov, helped hackers and different cyber criminals — together with North Korea’s state-sanctioned hacking squad, the Lazarus Group — launder over $1 billion in felony proceeds.
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