Tornado Cash developer Alexsey Pertsev will remain detained for a further three months in the Netherlands, a court hearing on 22 November revealed.
To date, Dutch authorities have detained Pertsev for 103 days.
According to the hearing, which took place at the Palace of Justice in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, prosecutors stated Pertsev was central to Tornado Cash’s business.
WK Cheng defended Pertsev, stating the embattled company’s use cases and attempting to clear up misunderstandings from its operations.
During the trial, prosecutors officially accused him of money laundering, citing Tornado Cash’s protocol code.
Meanwhile the Tornado cash dev still sits in jail… https://t.co/NREbBBdZXY
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) November 24, 2022
Pertsev, from Moscow, Russia, is a flight risk and will not be released on bail, Dutch courts said. Dutch Public Prosecutor Martine Boerlage argued that Pertsev had complete control of the crypto platform.
Boerlage added that Pertsov and two additional developers, Semenov and Storm, held sufficient governance tokens to “always outvote everyone else” in proposals.
The US Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash for alleged use from North Korean hackers laundering over $1 billion in digital assets, leading to Pertsev’s arrest in mid-August.
The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said in a statement at the time: “On August 24th the Den Bosch District Court held a session regarding the [pre-trial] detention of the suspect. The courts chamber consisted of three judges, they heard the public prosecutor on the investigation and the suspicion. They also heard the defense. Afterwards the court decided to extend the pre-trial detention of the suspect by 90 days.”
The arrest has triggered outcry among open-source developers creating Web 3.0 platforms, many of whom are concerned how code will be used. Many have also slammed the detention as unjust, adding that disgraced former chief executive of the bankrupt FTX platform, Sam Bankman-Fried, remains at large and is still active in the crypto community after millions of customers lost their crypto holdings.
