Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been sentenced to 64 months in prison for laundering billions of dollars, according to a new press release from the Dutch court.
The Dutch court in East Brabant handed down the sentence on Tuesday for his involvement in creating the Ethereum (ETH)-based coin mixing system that helps users obscure their digital assets.
The court said this in a statement.
“Tornado Cash poses no barrier whatsoever to people with criminal assets who want to launder them. The court therefore finds the suspect guilty of the money laundering activities charged.”
The court also ruled that “the seized Porsche and cryptocurrency with a value of approximately 1.9 million euros will not be returned to the suspect.”
Pertsev was arrested in the Netherlands in August 2022 on money laundering charges after the US Treasury Department banned US citizens from using the popular coin-mixing service because it posed a national security risk.
The US agency said at the time that Lazarus, the North Korean group allegedly behind the $600 million-plus Axie Infinity (AXS) bridge attack, used Tornado Cash to hide their illicit profits.
Other developers of the crypto mixer, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, are facing charges of money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States.
Storm has been released on bail pending trial, while Semenov has not yet been arrested.
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Featured image: Shutterstock/Tanakomu
