Alexey Pertsev, the mastermind behind Tornado Cash, has been found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch judge at the s-Hertogenbosch court. Pertsev had been accused of engaging in a series of money laundering activities between July 9, 2019, and August 10, 2022.
The prosecution argued that Pertsev should have been aware of the illegal origins of the transactions taking place on the Tornado Cash platform. Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands in August 2022 after Tornado Cash was blacklisted by the U.S. government. The U.S. Treasury had accused Tornado Cash of being a valuable tool for the North Korean hacking group Lazarus, which has been involved in significant cryptocurrency thefts.
The verdict in Pertsev’s trial could have implications for the ongoing trials of other Tornado Cash developers. Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, who also played a role in the development of the crypto mixer, are facing charges of money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States. Storm is scheduled to go on trial in September, while Semenov has yet to be apprehended.
It is important to note that Storm is not directly accused of laundering $1.2 billion in the United States. In late March, Storm submitted a motion to dismiss all charges against him, arguing that he did not operate a money laundering business and did not violate any laws. His defense team claimed that Tornado Cash is not a custodial mixing service and does not meet the definition of a “financial institution.” They also argued that Storm had no control over the service and could not prevent entities like the Lazarus Group from using it.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected Storm’s motion, stating that Tornado Cash was designed as a mixer in 2019 and consisted of a website, user interface, smart contracts, and a network of relayers. The DOJ maintained that Storm cannot dismiss the charges based on his own interpretation of how the Tornado Cash service operated.
As previously reported, the U.S. Treasury has added Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list, effectively prohibiting Americans from utilizing this mixer.
