Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev to Remain in Jail, Custody Extended by 3 Months

As per the Dutch law, a person can be held in custody up to 110 days without being formally charged in a criminal activity.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 16 February 2023 17:01 IST

Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev to Remain in Jail, Custody Extended by 3 Months

Photo Credit: Unsplash/ Bermix Studio

The arrested developer has had three appeals rejected since he was sentenced to jail

Highlights

Pertsev has not confirmed any allegations levied against him
Tornado Cash may have laundered illegal funds worth $7 billion
The Web3 community is outraged for Pertsev’s prolonged jail time

Prison time for Tordano Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has been extended for three more months until his next hearing, which is scheduled for April 21. Till then, Pertsev will continue to be under the custody of the Dutch police. The Tornado Cash platform was sanctioned by the US Treasury last year. The authorities had, at the time, alleged that the platform was being misused for facilitating money laundering via crypto assets for the benefit of cyber criminals.

As Pertsev's days behind the bars increase again, he has not yet been charged with any crime, CryptoSlate said in its report.

As per the Dutch law, a person can be held in custody up to 110 days without being formally charged in a criminal activity.

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Tornado Cash was launched in August 2019. It is a tool that lets people anonymously wire funds to destination wallets from a common pool of tokens.

Hackers and thieves who steal cryptocurrencies often use Tornado Cash to deposit their stolen tokens into a common pool of crypto tokens and then wire their stolen holdings into secret wallets. This completely breaks any trail of the stolen funds, that could have been traced by investigating officers.

The FBI suspects that North Korean hackers have also used the crypto mixer to get away with stolen crypto assets worth $455 million (roughly Rs. 3,763 crore).

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Tordano Cash has reportedly been accused of permitting the laundering of illegal funds worth $7 billion (roughly Rs. 57,911 crore). Its arrested developer has had three appeals rejected since he was sentenced to jail.

Meanwhile, Pertsev's prolonged arrest has infuriated several members of the Web3 community. A petition demanding the release of Pertsev has also been making the rounds and has already garnered over 5,000 signatures.

In January, Web3 builder Chainway launched a new feature called ‘Proof-of-Innocence', which would reward the holders of the Tron cryptocurrency if they proved that their holdings were not stolen. Tron is the native cryptocurrency of Tornado Cash.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Tornado Cash, Crypto Mixer, Alexey Pertsev

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More