Tornado Cash: released from prison the developer Alexey Pertsev

The developer of Tornado Cash, Alexey Pertsev, is out of prison. He revealed it himself today with a post on his personal X profile.

What is Tornado Cash

Tornado Cash is a decentralized protocol for private anonymous transactions on Ethereum.

It is based on smart contracts that mix together multiple transactions from different users, making it extremely difficult to trace all the senders of the transactions. 

It was launched in 2019 by a team of anonymous developers, but it ended up being the subject of several controversies, due to concerns regarding its potential use for illicit activities.

Against Tornado Cash, authorities from various countries, including the USA and the Netherlands, have spoken out, to the point that many users eventually stopped using it.

The social channels of the project have been inactive since the second half of 2022. 

Alexey Pertsev: the developer of Tornado Cash is released from prison

On August 10, 2022, one of the developers of Tornado Cash, the Russian Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands. The charge was that of facilitating money laundering.

The arrest occurred a few weeks after the United States Department of the Treasury had added Tornado Cash to its list of sanctioned tools, prohibiting its use by United States citizens.

Pertsev is suspected of being involved in money laundering activities through Tornado Cash and is accused of facilitating the laundering of over 7 billion dollars of crypto funds, including some of those stolen by North Korean hackers.

He, on the other hand, claimed to have always limited himself to developing the protocol, that is, in the mere creation of an open-source software tool, and not to be responsible for how it is used. Furthermore, he claims to have never had any control over the funds laundered through Tornado Cash.

The release

Pertsev was under house arrest in the Netherlands, and he was released today. 

He wrote: 

“Freedom has no price, but my freedom has cost a lot of money. My house arrest was only possible thanks to the work of the lawyers, who were paid with your donations. My fight is not over yet, and for a definitive and secure victory, I still need your help”.

The developer of Tornado Cash has not yet been definitively convicted. 

He had been under house arrest for about two and a half years awaiting final judgment. 

This means that, even though he has been released from prison, he was not deemed innocent. The period of preventive detention has simply ended. 

It is possible that the release is indirectly related to Trump’s electoral victory, given that the request for preventive arrest was probably backed by the USA Department of Justice. Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands, and since he had not been released until today, he was still there. 

The conviction

In May of last year, Pertsev was sentenced in the first instance to 64 months in prison (more than 5 years), to be served in a Dutch prison. Subsequently, while awaiting the final judgment, he was granted house arrest. 

Pertsev is now preparing for the appeal trial, and is also working on drafting an appeal to obtain justice. 

Technically, he was not convicted for creating Tornado Cash, but for facilitating money laundering. 

The recycling activity is not in question, because there are few doubts about the illicit origin of those seven billion dollars in crypto funds. 

What is being discussed is the responsibility of the developer. 

In fact, he claims that he cannot be held responsible for the use that has been made of his software, while the Dutch judicial authorities argue that he was aware of the problem and did nothing, or even actively assisted in the laundering. 

Obviously, given the conviction in the first instance, as of today a full acquittal on appeal does not seem particularly likely. However, the political context has changed, so this time he might also have greater luck.