The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is donating more than a million dollars to help Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev with his legal defense. The contribution follows the developer’s supervised release to prepare to appeal his money laundering conviction in the Netherlands.
Ethereum Foundation Aids Alexey Pertsev’s Defense
On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation announced its $1.25 million donation to Alexey Pertsev’s legal defense. In an X post, the Foundation shared their contribution to the Tornado Cash developer, affirming that “privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.”
EF pledges $1.25 million to support Tornado Cash's developer. Source: Ethereum Foundation on x
In August 2022, The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Ethereum-based crypto mixer Tornado Cash for “failing to impose effective controls” that prevented malicious actors from laundering funds using the protocol.
The US Treasury Department argued that the decentralized protocol was used to launder over $7 billion since 2019, including $455 million linked to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.
Following the sanctions, Pertsev was detained in the Netherlands and charged with money laundering for allegedly helping enable the laundering of $1.2 billion between the introduction of Tornado Cash in December 2019 and August 2022.
In May 2024, the developer was found guilty of money laundering by the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. However, he recently received a supervised release to work on his upcoming appeal.
As reported by Bitcoinist, Pertsev’s legal team submitted an appeal against the court’s ruling after his conviction, leading to his supervised release to prepare for the appeal out of prison.
In an X post, the developer announced his February 7 release, explaining that the court suspended his pretrial detention under the condition of electronic monitoring. He added that his release was not “real freedom” but was “better than prison.”
Fight For Privacy Tools Continues
Pertsev thanked the Ethereum Foundation’s contribution to his defense, expressing gratitude and relief for the donation as he can “now completely focus on preparing my appeal.”
Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, also responded to the EF’s post, sharing the same message as the Foundation. Buterin has advocated for privacy on different occasions, using protocols like Railgun and stating, “Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.”
Recently, he called for the release of Pertsev and Tornado Cash’s co-founder, Roman Storm, who was also detained in 2022 and awaits his April 14 trial. The Ethereum founder stated that “no man should be left behind” after US President Donald Trump granted the full pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
The Ethereum Foundation’s move follows Paradigm’s recent donation to Tornado Cash’s co-founder. The crypto firm contributed $1.25 million to Storm’s legal defense on January 28, arguing that “the prosecution’s case threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the bad acts of third parties, which would have a chilling effect in crypto and beyond.”
It’s worth noting that crypto privacy received a partial victory a month ago when the US District Court for the Western District of Texas reversed the OFAC sanctions against Tornado Cash following its November ruling.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that OFAC had “overstepped its congressionally defined authority” by sanctioning the crypto mixing protocol. The court concluded that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts can’t be classified as “property” under federal law, placing them outside the reach of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
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