Tornado Cash developer is jailed at least until the end of April
Alexey Pertsev's lawyer said that the court's lack of knowledge about decentralized technology is the main reason why his client is not released on bail
A court in the Netherlands has ruled that Tornado Cash crypto mixer developer Alexey Pertsev will have to stay in jail while his trial is ongoing, CoinDesk reports.
Tornado Cash is a blockchain protocol running on the Ethereum network. It increases transaction privacy by hiding the connection between the source and recipient of the tokens. The service is often used by hackers to withdraw funds from attacked projects.
The American research company Kharon names PepperSec founder and CEO Alexei Pertsev.
The developer is accused of money laundering with the crypto mixer, but he denies the charges against him.
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A panel of Dutch judges at an East Brabant court on Feb. 15 agreed that the Russian developer could abscond on his own or try to hide evidence if released on bail.
Dutch prosecutor Martin Berlage said that instead of simply publishing the code, Pertsev, and others were running Tornado Cash like a business. She compared them to bank clerks "accepting cash of suspicious origin without question."
Pertsev's lawyer, Keith Cheng, told the publication that the hearing was "a good start. It will explain to the court how decentralized financing works, what is at the heart of the Tornado Cash protocol, and why it is not money laundering. According to the lawyer, a lack of knowledge is the main reason why his client is not being released on bail.
Pertsev's first closed court hearing was held Aug. 25, and the judge denied the developer's lawyers' request for bail. At a hearing in late November, the court ruled that Pertsev must remain in prison until February.
