Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the Ethereum blender Tornado Cash, was found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court and sentenced to 64 months in prison.
A Dutch judge at the s-Hertogenbosch court said Tornado Cash was “for criminals” and “fully supports criminal users.” As a result, the developer was found guilty of laundering $1.2 billion in illegal assets.
The court said that between July 9, 2019 and August 10, 2022, Pertsev had made a “habit of committing money laundering” with Tornado Cash and should have been more suspicious about the criminal origin of transactions on the platform.
His lawyers have 14 days to appeal the court’s decision.
Crypto coin mixers obscure where your money is being sent. Hackers have a history of using them to launder illegal funds, but criminals aren’t the only ones using them. Tornado Cash is one of the most well-known mixers, but not the only one.
In 2022, Pertsev found himself in a Dutch prison after Tornado Cash was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department. Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm was later arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice on similar money laundering charges in 2023.
While the two men awaited trial, whistleblower turned international fugitive Edward Snowden expressed support for the Tornado Cache creator. Storm’s trial is scheduled for September.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated.
Edited by Stacey Elliott.