Alleged Tornado Cash Developer Arrested on Wednesday in Amsterdam

The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), an agency in the Netherlands responsible for investigating financial crimes, announced the arrest of a 29-year-old man in Amsterdam for his connections with the popular crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

The developer was arrested for his suspected involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering through the mixing of cryptocurrencies on the platform.

The news comes only a few days after Tornado Cash was placed by the US government on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list of America. In June 2022, the Financial Advanced Cyber Team (FACT) of the FIOD started a criminal investigation against Tornado Cash.

According to the official report posted by the FIOD on Friday, “Tornado Cash started in 2019, and according to FACT, it has since achieved a turnover of at least seven billion dollars. Investigations showed that at least one billion dollars worth of cryptocurrencies of criminal origin passed through the mixer. It is suspected that persons behind this organization have made large-scale profits from these transactions.”

This case will set a precedent for how the DOJ plans to hold founders accountable for their creations. Do you agree with the charges levied by the FIOD, or do you think it is wrong to arrest the developer of a decentralized platform because bad actors are using it? Let us know your thoughts below. 👇🏽