Tornado Cash Founder Indicted For Aiding Laundered $1.2B Funds: Report

Alexey Pertsev, the developer behind the popular Tornado Cash crypto mixer is facing an indictment for his alleged involvement in laundering up to $1.2 billion in crypto assets. This news is based on reports from DL News.

Alexey Pertsev Indicted for 36 Illicit Crimes

The Tornado Cash developer is becoming more popular for crypto crime than for the service that his company is designed to offer. Dutch prosecutors have been on his trail over some investigations that involved 36 allegedly illicit transactions. Of the listed cases, the 175 ETH from Axie Infinity-linked crypto protocol Ronin Bridge, was the highest.

Other illicit transactions on the Dutch prosecutors’ list involved decentralized protocols like Harmony and Nomad Bridge.

According to Pertsev’s lawyer Keith Cheng, “Prosecutors are suspecting Pertsev of money laundering and they have described it in a general way, but they don’t specify which exact acts he has committed to take part in the criminal offence.” 

Meanwhile, the Dutch authorities made it clear that the Tornado Cash developer has made it a habit to be involved in money laundering crimes. This claim might have some veracity to it, considering how Pertsev was arrested in August 2022 by the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) of the Netherlands over the alleged laundering of $7 billion in cryptocurrencies.

US OFAC Sanctions Tornado Cash

Before Pertsev’s arrest, the crypto mixer was sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department for cleaning dirty money running into several billions. One of the organizations accused of utilizing Tornado Cash is a popular North Korean Lazarus hacking group. 

At the time, the Tornado Cash developer was arrested but later granted bail and released. 

It wasn’t until August last year that he was arrested again for money laundering charges this time around. The arrest was orchestrated this time by the FBI. This was around the time when crypto digital detective ZachXBT claimed to have been monitoring a suspicious wallet since the beginning of 2023 with a link to Tornado Cash. 

In Pertsev’s current trial, he has vehemently denied his involvement in money laundering or a violation of money laundering securities claims since his initial arrest in 2022.

Pertsev’s trial is scheduled to begin on March 26 in the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.