Tornado Cash developer denied bail

The Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev, detained in a Dutch prison, will not be released on bail. CoinDesk reports.

A panel of judges agreed that the Russian national could flee or attempt to conceal evidence if released.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Pertsev and his colleagues did not merely publish code, but ran Tornado Cash as a business. The agency compared them to bank employees who accepted large volumes of suspicious funds without question.

Pertsev rejected the charges. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for the end of April.

Pertsev’s lawyer, Kit Cheng, told CoinDesk that it is precisely the judges’ lack of knowledge about decentralised finance that prevents his client from being released.

“We had the opportunity to explain what underpins Tornado Cash and why this is not money laundering,” he said.

OFAC placed on the sanctions list Tornado Cash on suspicion of laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency. The service was used, among others, by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.

Chainalysis estimates that during Tornado Cash’s operation more than $3.5 billion passed through it, of which up to $1.2 billion was directly linked to thefts, hacks and other illicit activities.

On 12 August, Dutch authorities arrested the developer of the service Alexey Pertsev. He is suspected of involvement in laundering funds and concealing criminal financial flows. His detention was extended until 20 February.

In Amsterdam, a rally in his support was held. Participants said that open-source code is not a crime, and the authorities should go after the real culprits.