The Netherlands claims that cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash was developed for criminal purposes

Representatives of the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) have reported their suspicions that the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer could have been created to conceal cryptocurrency crimes.

«The development of such a tool as a cryptocurrency mixer is not prohibited, but if it was created to conceal criminal activities, its development and placement on the Internet will be severely punished,» said a FIOD representative. Interestingly, there is currently no evidence to prove the involvement of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev in money laundering.

Tornado Cash (unlike the Blender mixer) is open source and a decentralized application, so the mixer does not belong to a specific person or organization. That is why the project developers cannot be held liable for the illegal activities of cryptocurrency criminals.

It is worth noting that the crypto community is outraged by the situation with the arrest of Alexei Pertsev — users are convinced that Pertsev has become a victim of US political repression. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control agrees with this opinion, saying that OFAC violated the constitutional right of Americans and «crossed all borders.»

To protect the programmer’s rights and draw attention to the situation with the arrest of the Tornado Cash developer, several thousand people will hold a rally in support of Alexei Pertsev on August 20 in the center of Amsterdam.

As a reminder, on August 8, the United States imposed sanctions that prohibit American citizens and businesses from using Tornado Cash services. A few days later, Alexey Pertsev was detained in Amsterdam and immediately taken to court, facing charges of laundering stolen cryptocurrencies and collaboration with criminals.