Dutch Court sentences Tornado Cash developer

[Father]

The fate of other cryptomixer creators is questionable.

Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court in ' s-Hertogenbosch. The court sentenced Pertsev to 64 months in prison.

After the verdict was announced, Pertsev was immediately taken to the pre-trial detention center at the court. He will be held there until he is transferred to the appropriate prison in the Netherlands.

Pertsev can appeal the verdict, which came into force from the moment of announcement. The time he has spent in custody since August 2022 does not appear to be included in the sentence.

The indictment, submitted before the trial, states that from July 9, 2019 to August 10, 2022, Pertsev "systematically engaged in money laundering" and should have at least suspected the criminal origin of illegal transactions on the Tornado Cash platform.

Alexey Pertsev was detained by the Dutch authorities in August 2022 after cryptomixer was blacklisted by the US government. At the time, the US Treasury Department claimed that the service was a key tool for the North Korean hacking group Lazarus, linked to the theft of $625 million from the Axie Infinity project's Ronin network and other major cryptocurrency thefts.

The outcome of the case may affect future lawsuits against other Tornado Cash creators. Roman Storm and Roman Semyonov are also charged with money laundering and violating US sanctions. Storm will appear in court in September, and Semenov has not yet been detained.

 

[Father]

Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer, appealed the verdict on charges of money laundering. This is reported by CoinDesk.

According to the publication, the appeal went to the ' s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal. Now the outcome of its consideration is unknown. This may take several months.

Earlier, a court in the Netherlands found Pertsev guilty of laundering $1.2 billion through a mixer between July 2019 and August 2022 and sentenced him to 64 months in prison.

Immediately after the verdict, the developer was taken to prison, but he could have asked to wait for the appeals court at home, the newspaper notes.

 

[Tomcat]

Vitalik Buterin donated 30 ETH for legal support for Tornado Cash developers

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated to the legal defense fund for Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm.

The Free Alexey & Roman fundraising initiative launched in January on the decentralized platform Juicebox. The transaction was made from the vitalik.eth address associated with Buterin.

At the time of writing, the fund has received 875 payments worth 592.43 ETH (~$2.2 million).

On May 14, a court in the Netherlands found Pertsev guilty of laundering $1.2 billion through a cryptomixer. The developer was sentenced to 64 months in prison. He had been under arrest since August 2022 and only in April 2023 the measure of restraint was changed to house arrest.

The co-founders of Tornado Cash, Storm and Roman Semenov, were also charged with money laundering and violation of sanctions in the United States. The first was released on bail, but he refused to admit his guilt. The second remained free, but was subject to sanctions.

Buterin called Pertsev's sentence an "unfortunate" and "very sad" situation. However, the programmer noted that it could give impetus to rethinking the role of cryptocurrency mixers.