Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev will spend the next few months in a Dutch prison, denied bail while he prepares for an appeal hearing.
Alexey Pertsev will remain in prison
Pertsev is the creator of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. His project came under scrutiny by US intelligence agencies. It was believed that the software helped users launder money and circumvent sanctions imposed on hostile countries by the government in Washington.
The programmer is now in a Dutch prison, and has been denied bail.
Pertsev’s defense attorney, Keith Cheng, told DL News that the rejection of the bail application came as a surprise to lawyers. The court in the Netherlands also rejected an additional request from his client to access a computer to prepare for the appeal.
It said Pertsev’s continued detention in prison would not prevent him from preparing for his appeal, adding that the request for computer access was contrary to security protocol.
The developer’s lawyer, Judith de Boer, told media that the arrest in a case involving “such fundamental” legal issues was “unacceptable”.
This unprecedented case concerns situations in which a software developer may be held criminally liable for misuse of the software by third parties.
– added de Boer.
On May 14, the Dutch Court of Appeal found Pertsev guilty of money laundering. The developer was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for allegedly laundering $1.2 billion in illegal assets on his platform. In practice, however, the point was that Tornado Cash did not block the possibility of laundering funds. The creators themselves did not launder any money!
This is a “blatant mistake”
An X account associated with JusticeDAO, a fundraising organization for the defense of developer Tornado Cash, wrote that the ruling constitutes a “gross miscarriage of justice.”
Alexey will spend the next year in prison while his legal team prepares for an appeal hearing. This is a gross miscarriage of justice. Developers should not be in prison for the actions of third parties.
– we read.
During the March trial, Pertsev argued that he could not be held responsible for the actions of those who used the Tornado Cash protocol to carry out illegal tasks.
The court rejected this argument, finding that if Pertsev and the other two Tornado Cash co-founders had truly wanted to prevent criminals from abusing the protocol, they would have taken certain steps to block illegal activities.
