Tornado Cash Developer Convicted of Money Laundering, Sentenced To 64 Months in Prison
A Dutch judge at the s-Hertogenbosch court has found Alexey Pertsev, a developer of the cryptocurrency mixing platform Tornado Cash, guilty of money laundering.
The court sentenced Pertsev to 64 months in prison, marking a shocking development in the ongoing legal battles surrounding the crypto mixer.
Key points:
- Alexey Pertsev convicted of money laundering by a Dutch court.
- Pertsev sentenced to 64 months in prison.
- The trial result could set a precedent for future trials of other Tornado Cash developers.
- Tornado Cash was blacklisted by the U.S. government in August 2022 for alleged ties to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
- In the United States, other Tornado Cash developers, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, face similar allegations.
Also read: Coinbase Investigates System-Wide Outage, Assures Users’ Funds Are Safe
According to the indictment shared prior to the trial, Pertsev was accused of habitually engaging in money laundering between July 9, 2019, and August 10, 2022.
Additionally, the court determined that Pertsev should have, at the very least, suspected the criminal origins of the illicit transactions facilitated through the Tornado Cash platform.
Tornado Cash began facing trouble in 2022
In August 2022, the U.S. government blacklisted Tornado Cash, leading to Pertsev’s initial imprisonment in the Netherlands. In addition, the U.S. Treasury had alleged that the crypto mixer was a key tool utilized by the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking organization linked to the $625 million hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network and other major thefts.
The outcome of Pertsev’s trial could have major implications for the future trials of other Tornado Cash developers. Also, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, two other developers associated with the platform, are facing allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States.
Also read: Crypto Exchange Rain Allegedly Exploited For $14.8M: ZachXBT
It is worth noting that the legal frameworks in the U.S. and the Netherlands differ in their approach to personal responsibility in cases involving alleged crimes of this nature.
