coinspress.com
Alexey Pertsev, the creator of Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing protocol, has been convicted of money laundering by Dutch judges at 's-Hertogenbosch court on May 14.
Pertsev received a five-year and four-month prison sentence for allegedly laundering $1.2 billion of illicit assets through the platform.
The verdict has significant implications for open-source code developers, as Pertsev’s conviction occurred despite Tornado Cash being a non-custodial crypto mixing protocol.
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This means that the platform does not hold or control the funds passing through it.
Pertsev’s conviction follows his arrest in the Netherlands in August 2022, shortly after Tornado Cash was blacklisted by the U.S. government. His legal representatives will have 14 days to appeal the court’s decision.