Vitalik Buterin Donates 30 ETH to Tornado Cash Legal Defence
Vitalik Buterin has given 30 ETH to support the legal fees of Tornado Cash developers Alexy Pertsev and Roman Storm.
The Ethereum founder's transaction was witnessed on chain, with the $113,000 of Ethereum being sent from his wallet to Juicebox, an open-source crypto crowdfunding platform.
Pertsev was arrested in August 2022 when US officials sanctioned Tornado Cash, alleging that the crypto mixer was used to launder millions of dollars. He was detained for almost nine months and continues to be monitored with a GPS but has denied the allegations ever since.
Tornado Cash co-developers Storm and Roman Semonov were also charged in August 2023. Storm will be trialled in the US in September.
However, Tornado Cash's founders are not charged with writing software – they are charged with operating centralized, profit-driven enterprises that violated the law.
2024 is the year that will define the rest of my life.
— Roman S (@rstormsf) January 22, 2024
Honestly, I’m scared. But also hopeful that this community cares with a passion.
Please donate towards my legal defense.https://t.co/dQ7SCBesIm pic.twitter.com/0jeievSUxc
Pertsev has received support from the wider crypto community including Coinbase. “If these sanctions stand, the damage will extend beyond these six individuals, and even beyond Tornado Cash,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on X. “Even though we’re not the ones facing the brunt of these damages, we couldn’t stand by.”
7/ The crypto industry as a whole and economic freedom would be weakened. That is why, even though we’re not the ones facing the brunt of these damages, we couldn't stand by.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) September 8, 2022
Earlier this month, Pertsev appealed against his guilty conviction, handed down by a Dutch court, which sentenced him to 64 months in jail.
Pertsev was sentenced in the Netherlands for his part in facilitating $1.2 billion in money laundering through Tornado Cash between July 2019 and August 2022.
Dutch prosecutors have highlighted 36 alleged illicit transactions through Tornado Cash of which Pertsev was supposedly a co-perpetrator.
The "Free Alexey & Roman" crowd-sourced fund now has over 596 ETH from 988 payments.
Nothing in the document talks about developing privacy technology as a problem. Nothing they are charged for was decentralized at the time the actionable conduct occurred.
Everything is about operating centralized businesses that conflict with laws that were known at the time. Whether what they did was illegal is a separate question to be settled within the legal system.