Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been sentenced to 64 months in jail for laundering billions of dollars, according to a new Dutch court press release.
The Netherlands’ Oost-Brabant district court handed down the sentence Tuesday for his involvement in creating the Ethereum (ETH)-based coin mixing system that helps users obfuscate their digital assets.
Says the court in a statement,
“Tornado Cash does not pose any barrier for people with criminal assets who want to launder them. That is why the court regards the defendant guilty of the money laundering activities as charged.”
The court also ruled that “that the Porsche which had been seized and cryptocurrency with a value of about 1.9 million euros, will not be returned to the defendant.”
Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands for money laundering allegations in August 2022 after the U.S. Treasury Department banned American citizens from using the popular coin mixing service on the grounds it posed risks to national security.
The US agency said at the time that Lazarus, the North Korean group allegedly behind the Axie Infinity (AXS) bridge attack that amounted to over $600 million, used Tornado Cash to conceal their illicit gains.
Other developers of the crypto mixer, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, face allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States.
Storm is out on bail awaiting trial while Semenov has not yet been arrested.
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