Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer found guilty of money laundering in 2024, is set to be released from prison on Friday to prepare for his appeal, he said in a post on X.
Dear Friends, on Friday 7 February at 10 am I will be free! It is not real freedom, but it is better than prison. Today, a Dutch court suspended my pretrial detention under the condition of electronic monitoring. This will give me a chance to work on my appeal and fight for…
— Alexey Pertsev (@alex_pertsev) February 6, 2025
The 31-year old Russian national was sentenced to 64 months in a Dutch prison last May after an indictment said Pertsev had “a habit of committing money laundering” and should have suspected illicit transactions on the platform.
Tornado Cash is a coin-mixing protocol that allows users to privately send tokens to another wallet. It achieves privacy by pooling funds together and shuffling them until the origin is unclear.
The protocol is sanctioned by the U.S. government, which alleges that Tornado Cash was being used by North Korean hackers Lazarus Group.
