The case for Pertsev’s innocence before a European court of law in relation to Tornado Cash and other cryptocurrency-based software

After two years of his arrest and indictment for money laundering, Pertsev’s decentralization defense is one of the central arguments for his innocence. The criminal charges that could send Pertsev to prison for years are up for a Dutch judges’ decision on Tuesday. Privacy advocates believe the result of the case—the first of two, as the New York prosecution of another Tornado Cash cofounder, Roman Storm, is expected to go to trial this coming September—could also shape the future of cryptocurrency privacy and may determine the limits of services like Tornado Cash or other open source software creations to offer a safe haven from financial surveillance.

Money laundering activity, the Dutch prosecutors claim, accounted for more than 30 percent of the funds that passed through Tornado Cash between 2019 and 2022. Pertsev looked away while doing nothing to prevent the criminal activity. “Pertsev wasn’t blind; he knew perfectly well what was happening but chose not to intervene,” the prosecutors wrote in the filing.

A panel of judges in the Netherlands found Pertsev guilty of money-laundering for his work with Tornado Cash.

According to a statement by the court, Tornado Cash was a way for the defendant to finance crimes and terrorism. “He chose to look away from the abuse and did not take any responsibility.”

The arrest of Pertsev sparked protests among cryptocurrency and privacy advocates, some of whom demonstrated outside the courtroom on the opening day of the trial. His defenders claim it is unjust for a developer of open source software to be held responsible for the behavior of users, and say the verdict will have a chilling effect on the development of privacy-preserving software.