{"id":15284,"date":"2025-02-27T10:01:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T10:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=15284"},"modified":"2025-02-27T10:01:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T10:01:49","slug":"ethereum-foundation-donates-1-25-million-to-tornado-cash-developers-legal-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=15284","title":{"rendered":"Ethereum Foundation Donates $1.25 Million To Tornado Cash Developer\u2019s Legal Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is donating more than a million dollars to help Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev with his legal defense. The contribution follows the developer\u2019s supervised release to prepare to appeal his money laundering conviction in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Ethereum Foundation Aids Alexey Pertsev\u2019s Defense<\/h2>\n

On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation announced its $1.25 million donation to Alexey Pertsev\u2019s legal defense. In an X post, the Foundation shared their contribution to the Tornado Cash developer, affirming that \u201cprivacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ethereum\"<\/p>\n

In August 2022, The US Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Ethereum-based crypto mixer Tornado Cash for \u201cfailing to impose effective controls\u201d that prevented malicious actors from laundering funds using the protocol.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury Department argued that the decentralized protocol was used to launder over $7 billion since 2019, including $455 million linked to the North Korean hacking<\/a> group Lazarus Group.<\/p>\n

Following the sanctions, Pertsev was detained in the Netherlands and charged with money laundering for allegedly helping enable the laundering of $1.2 billion between the introduction of Tornado Cash in December 2019 and August 2022.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, the developer was found guilty of money laundering by the s-Hertogenbosch Court of Appeal and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. However, he recently received a supervised release to work on his upcoming appeal.<\/p>\n

As reported<\/a> by Bitcoinist, Pertsev\u2019s legal team submitted an appeal against the court\u2019s ruling after his conviction, leading to his supervised release to prepare for the appeal out of prison.<\/p>\n

In an X post, the developer announced his February 7 release, explaining that the court suspended his pretrial detention under the condition of electronic monitoring. He added that his release was not \u201creal freedom\u201d but was \u201cbetter than prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fight For Privacy Tools Continues<\/h2>\n

Pertsev thanked<\/a> the Ethereum Foundation\u2019s contribution to his defense, expressing gratitude and relief for the donation as he can \u201cnow completely focus on preparing my appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethereum\u2019s founder, Vitalik Buterin, also responded to the EF\u2019s post, sharing the same message as the Foundation. Buterin has advocated for privacy on different occasions, using protocols like Railgun and stating, \u201cPrivacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, he called for the release of Pertsev and Tornado Cash\u2019s co-founder, Roman Storm, who was also detained in 2022 and awaits his April 14 trial. The Ethereum founder stated that \u201cno man should be left behind\u201d after US President Donald Trump granted the full pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.<\/p>\n

The Ethereum Foundation\u2019s move follows Paradigm\u2019s recent donation to Tornado Cash\u2019s co-founder. The crypto firm contributed<\/a> $1.25 million to Storm\u2019s legal defense on January 28, arguing that \u201cthe prosecution\u2019s case threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the bad acts of third parties, which would have a chilling effect in crypto and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that crypto privacy received<\/a> a partial victory a month ago when the US District Court for the Western District of Texas reversed the OFAC sanctions against Tornado Cash following its November ruling.<\/p>\n

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0ruled that OFAC had \u201coverstepped its congressionally defined authority\u201d by sanctioning the crypto mixing protocol. The court concluded that Tornado Cash\u2019s immutable smart contracts can\u2019t be classified as \u201cproperty\u201d under federal law, placing them outside the reach of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).<\/p>\n

\"Ethereum<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is donating more than a million dollars to help Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev with his legal defense. The contribution follows the developer\u2019s supervised release to prepare to appeal his money laundering conviction in the Netherlands. Ethereum Foundation Aids Alexey Pertsev\u2019s Defense On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation announced its $1.25 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-15284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}