A suspended Pennsylvania attorney's requests to exclude certain evidence from his upcoming October cryptocurrency fraud trial were largely shot down by a judge who found, among other things, that the requests should have taken the form of earlier motions to strike certain allegations from the government's indictment.

In Thursday filings in Pennsylvania federal court, U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy variously denied, denied as moot and denied without prejudice nine in limine motions filed by Sean Hvizdzak, who, with his brother Shane Hvizdzak, is accused by the government of defrauding would-be investors in their purported cryptocurrency investment fund High Street Capital Fund USA LP.

With respect to several categories of the exclusion requests, Judge Hardy told Sean Hvizdzak that, as an initial matter, to the extent that the defendant contended that certain allegations "are improper or somehow prejudice him, he could have filed a motion to strike" those claims, but failed to do so.

Those requested exclusions include claims regarding a deed transfer Shane Hvizdzak made in 2020 for which Sean Hvizdzak said he'd handled some paperwork; evidence, testimony and arguments from after the brothers' accounts were frozen and the FBI executed a search warrant against them; and claims involving allegedly backdated deeds.

Judge Hardy also denied as moot Sean Hvizdzak's request to exclude his stipulation from a parallel civil action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a year before the indictment in the criminal case, noting that the government said it didn't intend to introduce any stipulation from the SEC matter.

Similarly, the court denied as moot Sean Hvizdzak's request to leave out evidence and testimony about the temporary suspension of his law license, which the government also said it didn't plan to bring up at trial.

And the court mostly shot down Sean Hvizdzak's requests to have certain emails and text messages excluded, including texts in which he'd referred to certain individuals as the "Jew Crew," noting that the government argued that the phrase is "probative," since it identified certain people the defendants sent investor money to.

"As a sister court has observed, '[c]ourts only grant motions to redact racial epithets when they are concerned that the use of such epithets would lead to jury prejudice against the defendant, including a perception by jurors that the defendant is a racist,'" Judge Hardy said, referencing a 2024 opinion in the case United States v. Strickland .

Judge Hardy did say that for one category of his exclusion requests, Sean Hvizdzak could revise his request if he wanted, since the court found that the request, which pertained to specific text messages, lacked the necessary specificity.

Sean Hvizdzak and Shane Hvizdzak were hit with a 65-count indictment in August 2021 leveling claims of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering.

Individually, Sean Hvizdzak is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 26 counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering, Judge Hardy noted Thursday.

Jury selection and trial are scheduled for Oct. 20.

Representatives for Sean Hvizdzak and the government did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

Sean Hvizdzak is represented by David J. Berardinelli of DeForest Koscelnik & Berardinelli.

The government is represented by Christian A. Trabold of the U.S. Attorney's office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The cases are United States v. Hvizdzak et al., case number 1:21-cr-00030, and SEC v. Hvizdzak Capital Management et al., case number 1:20-cv-00154, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.