Tornado Cash’s creator, Alexey Pertsev, is currently being charged with money laundering related to his alleged role in the laundering of up to $1.2 billion in Bitcoin. The indictment focuses on 36 transactions on Tornado Cash that are considered illegal, concentrating on a notable transaction of 175 ETH associated with the Ronin Bridge hack. Because of this breach, the blockchain supporting the web3 game Axie Infinity lost 173,600 ETH, or roughly $590 million, in March 2022.
Dutch prosecutors scrutinizing Pertsev’s activities highlighted his increasing association with crypto-related crimes rather than the primary services offered by his company. Their investigation has extended to several transactions, not only those linked to the Ronin Bridge but also involving decentralized protocols like Harmony and Nomad Bridge.
Keith Cheng, Pertsev’s lawyer, indicated the prosecutors’ general accusations of money laundering against Pertsev. He stressed that the prosecutors “don’t specify which exact acts he has committed” to be charged with direct criminal involvement.
The Dutch authorities have continuously emphasized Alexey Pertsev’s repeated involvement in money laundering activities, a viewpoint that has grown more credible after his arrest by the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) of the Netherlands in August 2022. Under suspicion of enabling the illicit transfer of more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies via Tornado Cash, Pertsev’s actions have attracted considerable attention to the operations of the crypto mixer.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had already imposed sanctions against Tornado Cash prior to Alexey Pertsev’s initial arrest. The platform was accused of laundering billions of dollars, including funds connected to the infamous North Korean hacker organization Lazarus, which led to the imposition of sanctions.
Despite facing sanctions, Pertsev was arrested and later released on bail, only to be arrested again by the FBI in August of the following year for charges specifically tied to money laundering. During this time, on-chain detective ZachXBT had also disclosed that he had been closely monitoring a wallet of interest since the start of 2023, suspected to have ties to Tornado Cash.
Pertsev’s legal battles have since intensified, with him staunchly denying any wrongdoing related to money laundering or breaching securities laws from his initial arrest in 2022. His trial, set to address these allegations, is scheduled to commence on March 26 in the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
