Based on materials from the site - By Cointelegraph

The lawyers of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm may petition to dismiss the court case against a government witness who, they say, has no relation to the crypto mixer.

Storm's defense on Monday proposed the idea of dismissing the court case to Manhattan federal judge Katherine Polk Failla, questioning the testimony of government witness Hanfen Lin, as reported by Inner City Press.
If the decision to dismiss the court case is made, the court case against Storm will be deemed invalid due to a judicial error, which in this case could have been evidence that should have been excluded, and the case could be completely dismissed or reviewed with a new judge and jury. Storm faces up to 45 years in prison after being charged in 2023 with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate US sanctions, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money laundering business in connection with Tornado Cash, the cryptocurrency mixing service of which he is a co-founder.
He has been charged alongside co-founder Roman Semenov, who did not appear in court and is reportedly in his native Russia.

Lin, the prosecution witness, testified on Tuesday about how a scammer offering crypto guarantees tricked her out of $190,000 via WhatsApp.
According to reporter David Morris, in 2022, a certain person contacted Lin online, convincing her to buy bitcoins (BTC) on a cryptocurrency exchange and withdraw them to an allegedly trading platform that falsely claimed to generate high profits, prompting her to send even more. She stated that her funds were stolen, and the cryptocurrency recovery service Payback informed her that part of her bitcoins was sent through Tornado Cash.
"Based on our investigation conducted over the weekend, we have found no evidence that any of Ms. Lin's funds were sent to Tornado Cash," said Storm's attorney David Patton, as reported by Inner City Press. "We need to discuss the motion to dismiss the case with Mr. Storm."

The news outlet The Rage reported that Storm's lawyers conducted a cross-examination of FBI cryptocurrency tracking expert, special agent Joseph DeCapua, who stated that he had not been tasked with analyzing Lin's transactions.

DeCapua had previously testified, detailing the alleged flow of cryptocurrency that entered Tornado Cash after the hack. Storm's attorney Patton stated that the defense expected him to link Lin's flows to the protocol, but, "obviously, he did not do that."

It was reported that the prosecution stated it would call IRS analyst Stefan George, another cryptocurrency tracking expert, to prove that Lin's funds went into Tornado Cash.

It is unknown what research Storm's defense team conducted, but blockchain researchers recently stated on social media that the on-chain transactions associated with Lin's scammers show that these funds never entered Tornado Cash.

MetaMask security researcher Taylor Monahan wrote on X on Friday that Lin's scammers did not use Tornado Cash and detailed how she tracked Lin's funds.

Monahan stated that the scammers exchanged Lin's bitcoins for ether (ETH), and this transaction was linked to other on-chain transactions that Payback, the cryptocurrency tracking company hired by Lin, mistakenly flagged as outgoing from the scammer.

Blockchain analyst ZachXBT also agreed with Monahan's conclusion and criticized Payback's analysis.
"[I don't know] how one can get so confused in tracking when being a company that cannot properly track instant exchange deposits one step from the theft address and then track subsequent transactions incorrectly back to Tornado [Cash]," wrote ZachXBT.


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