Alexey Pertsev, the mastermind behind Tornado Cash, has been found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch judge at the s-Hertogenbosch court. The trial came after Pertsev was indicted for 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’s arrest took place in August 2022 in the Netherlands, following the blacklisting of Tornado Cash by the US government. The US Treasury accused Tornado Cash of being an essential tool for the North Korean hacking group Lazarus, which has been involved in significant cryptocurrency thefts, including the $625 million hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network.
The outcome of Pertsev’s trial could have implications for the upcoming trials of other Tornado Cash developers. Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, who were also involved in the development of the cryptocurrency mixer, are facing charges of money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States. Storm is scheduled to stand trial in September, while Semenov has not yet been apprehended. Storm was arrested last year after Tornado Cash once again appeared on the US sanctions watchlist.
It is important to note that in the United States, Storm is not directly accused of participating in the laundering of $1.2 billion.
In late March, Storm filed a motion to dismiss all three charges against him, arguing that he did not operate a money laundering business and did not violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. His lawyers 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 Lazarus Group from using it. The defense maintained that simply developing the code for the project does not equate to running a money laundering operation.
However, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected Storm’s motion, stating that Tornado Cash was introduced in 2019 as a mixer and consisted of a website, user interface, a combination of smart contracts, and a network of “relayers.” The DOJ argued that Storm cannot dismiss the indictment based on his own disputed interpretation of how the Tornado Cash service operated or his self-serving version of his intentions.
As previously reported, the US Treasury has added Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list, effectively prohibiting Americans from using this mixer.