Dutch Court Sentences Tornado Cash Co-Founder to 5 Years in Prison for Money Laundering
May 15, 2024
Cryptocurrency / Anonymity
A Dutch court on Tuesday sentenced one of the co-founders of the now-sanctioned Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer service to 5 years and 4 months in prison. While the name of the defendant was redacted in the verdict , it's known that Alexey Pertsev, a 31-year-old Russian national, had been awaiting trial in the Netherlands on money laundering charges. Pertsev, one of the developers of Tornado Cash, was arrested in Amsterdam in August 2022 days after the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the service for allowing malicious actors such as the Lazarus Group to launder and cash out their proceeds. In addition to the imprisonment, the defendant is expected to forfeit cryptocurrency assets worth €1.9 million (~$2.05 million) and a Porsche car that had been previously seized. "The defendant declared that it was never his intention to break the law or to facilitate criminal activities," a summary of the ruling said . "With Tornado Cash, he wanted to offer a l