A court in the Netherlands has remanded Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev in custody at least until the end of November. The Block reports, citing his wife, Ksenia Malik.
According to her, the court improperly rejected the appeal and did not take into account the defence’s arguments.
She also said that Dutch prosecutors planned to arrest and auction Pertsev’s property. The attorney said the car seized on the day of the developer’s arrest would go under the hammer.
“At the moment, only the car, but I think they may come and seize something else at any moment,” she said.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the Financial Information and Investigation Service did not respond to the publication’s request.
On August 8, OFAC added the Tornado Cash site to its sanctions list, along with 39 Ethereum addresses and 6 USDC addresses linked to it, on suspicion of laundering more than $7 billion.
On August 12, Dutch authorities arrested Pertsev. Later the court kept the developer in custody and set a 90-day window for the first hearing.
In Amsterdam on August 22, a rally in his support took place. Participants said that open-source code is not a crime, and authorities should pursue real perpetrators.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell called the sanctions against Tornado Cash unconstitutional, while TRM Labs analysts called them a compliance challenge.
Criticism also came from U.S. Representative Tom Emmer. In his view, restrictions on the mixer threaten privacy and innovation. He called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to explain OFAC’s actions.
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