In a December statement, Tornado developer Alexey Pertsev questioned the arrests, which he believed were process abuses. A Dutch court denied him on November 22 that the developer should be detained for another three months for further investigation.
But Pertsev doesn’t seem to have a full grasp of the basis of his case or even why he was arrested. The developer has reiterated how his arrest and ongoing proceedings have broken nearly every aspect of his life, but according to him, authorities only showed him legal documents, leaving him with no money. I couldn’t explain what was happening.
Nonetheless, a preliminary hearing in the Netherlands in November outlined an ongoing investigation and showed the Tornado Cash founders to be the key players in hiding money laundering information.
Prosecutors highlighted how Pertsev and two other co-founders ran a money laundering scheme as a business and helped cybercriminals hide information.
Pertsev’s attorney, WK Cheng, was given the opportunity to make an initial discussion highlighting the Tornado Cash use case. In his talk, Cheng cleared up some misconceptions about his cryptocurrency mixing provider.
However, according to Pertsev’s attorneys, how the court handles the proceedings indicates little to no knowledge of cryptocurrencies.
Pertsev holds out hope that as judges dig deeper into the case, they will gain more understanding of Tornado Cash and its decentralized structure. Unfortunately, he noted, his bailout would come at the cost of months in custody and seeing his wife only once a week.
The clarity of Pertsev’s little-to-no understanding of the basis for his arrest was made clear in his remarks about whether he would commit similar crimes. Pertsev added that he was not informed of his crime when he was arrested.