According to the report by DL News, the Dutch prosecutor has charged Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, alleging that he was a co-perpetrator in money laundering activities using the protocol, laundering over $1.2 billion of illicit funds.
The indictment documents obtained by DL News reveal that Pertsev is accused of “habitually engaging in money laundering activities.” The prosecutor listed 36 suspected illegal transactions involving Tornado Cash and several decentralized protocols, with the largest transaction involving over 175 ETH (worth approximately $570,000), allegedly originating from the Ronin cross-chain bridge.
Decentralized protocols such as Harmony and Nomad also appear on the list of the Dutch prosecutor. US officials accused Tornado Cash of being used to launder millions of dollars in the Harmony and Nomad hacking cases when imposing sanctions on the mixer in August 2022.
In August 2022, Alexey Pertsev was arrested by the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) in the Netherlands and charged with facilitating money laundering activities through Tornado Cash, allegedly being involved in concealing the flow of criminal funds. After nearly nine months of detention, Pertsev was released and continues to deny violating anti-money laundering laws. He is scheduled to stand trial in the Netherlands on March 26.
Keith Cheng, Pertsev’s lawyer, stated in an interview with DL News: Roman Storm and Roman Semonov, who are also developers of Tornado Cash, were charged in August 2023. Storm is awaiting trial in the United States in September.
The Butterfly Effect: Pertsev’s case has a significant impact on the cryptocurrency industry. If developers and the open-source community are concerned about potential future scrutiny from US authorities for their involvement in projects that may be deemed suspicious, a guilty verdict could lead to a “butterfly effect.”
Many in the crypto community view the case against Pertsev as a legal threat to coding itself. Supporters, ranging from the Coinbase exchange to Ethereum developer Preston Van Loon and the Blockchain Association in Washington, have come forward to defend Pertsev. They have submitted legal documents in the US arguing that developing software should not be equated with participating in money laundering or similar crimes. The Dutch prosecutor agrees with this argument and has hinted that it may be a key element in their case.
Image source
Successful Conclusion of CoinEx Taiwan’s 7th Anniversary Celebration, Embracing the Arrival of the Web3 Era Hand in Hand with Users
Since its establishment in 2017, CoinEx has been a professional cryptocurrency trading pla…