Alexey Pertsev, the arrested Tornado Cash developer, will remain in jail until at least late November after his appeal was rejected, according to his wife.
Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer who was detained in August by Dutch police on suspicion of aiding money laundering, will remain behind bars for at least another two months as a result of the judge’s denial of his appeal.
Pertsev, a Russian native, has already been detained for more than seven weeks after being taken into custody on August 10 in Amsterdam. Two days after Tornado Cash and 44 linked Ethereum and USDC wallets were added to the U.S. government’s list of Specially Designated Nationals, he was arrested.
The crypto mixing service, which enables users to hide transactions, was accused by the U.S. Treasury of repeatedly failing to enact controls that would have prevented it from serving as a money-laundering front for malicious online actors. According to the decision on Thursday, Pertsev, 29, will be held in detention at least until November 22.
The rejection, according to Pertsev’s wife Ksenia Malik, is “absolutely not fair,” and no justification on Pertsev’s part was taken into account. “There is absolute lawlessness going on here,” she said.
She continued by saying that the Dutch government is “afraid that Alex will return to Russia, although if he returns, he will be sent to war.”
Malik claims that Dutch authorities intend to confiscate and auction off Pertsev’s property. She said that his car was impounded the day he was detained and that Pertsev’s attorney informed her that the prosecution would sell the vehicle.
Malik responded, “As we see,” when asked if Dutch prosecutors could confiscate an accused person’s assets without filing a formal charge.
“At the moment, only a car, but I think they can come and take something else at any moment. I don’t feel safe,” she said. Prosecutors will sell “all of our legal property at auction, leaving me with nothing.”
The arrest of Pertsev has drawn criticism from many in the crypto community. About 50 supporters of privacy and cryptocurrencies demonstrated in Amsterdam last month.
Malik participated in the demonstration and assisted in its planning. Pertsev should not be held accountable for creating open-source code, regardless of how it is exploited by criminals, according to protesters.
The Block was the first to break this story.