Dutch law enforcers have rejected requests from lawyers to let the creator of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer go home until the next court hearing.
The Dutch court decided to keep Aleksey Pertsev in prison for another three months. All this time the developer will spend in custody in the Netherlands. At the hearing, the prosecution spoke about how the investigation is proceeding, noting that Pertsev is a central figure in all Tornado Cash operations.
The lawyers told the court that the investigators misunderstood the principle of the mixer, the use cases and the overall functionality. The defense is disappointed with the court’s decision, since it described in as much detail as possible all the mechanisms and what the lawyers themselves are trying to achieve.
The prosecution rejected all attempts by the defense to let Pertsev go home, despite the fact that the developer’s lawyers guaranteed surveillance of the house and weekly checks. The next meeting is to be held on February 20, 2023. Lawyers vow to keep fighting:
“We will send several new requests, as well as conduct our own investigation to work out the situation from several points of view. We will be ready for the next trial.”
Earlier, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added sanctions against the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer, saying that it financed North Korea’s nuclear program.
Source: Bits
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