Dutch authorities arrested a 29-year-old man who was believed to be a developer for the Tornado Cash mixer. The US Treasury has put the notorious coin startup on its sanctions list after the announcement came a few days later.
A 29-year-old man was arrested on August 10 in Amsterdam in a press release by the Netherlands Fiscal Information and Investigation Service FIOD. He is suspected of being involved in hiding criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering through the mixing of cryptocurrencies through the decentralized Ethereum mixing service, Tornado Cash.
Multiple arrests are not ruled out. The FIOD has given extra attention to these advanced technologies, such as decentralised organisations that may facilitate money laundering. The FIOD stands for a safe financial Netherlands and investigates with effect and impact in the criptocurrency domain. The suspect is brought to the examining judge today, FIOD said.
A tumbler or blender is a service that mixes different streams of potentially identifiablecryptocurrencies to improve the anonymity of transactions and harder to trace. Tornado Cash is one of the biggest tumblers identified as notorious by the U.S. Treasury.
The US Treasury said in a statement:
The U.S. Department of Treasury s Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC has sanctioned virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, which has been used to launder more than $7 billion of virtual currency since its creation in 2019. This includes $455 million stolen by the Lazarus Group, a Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK state-sponsored hacking group sanctioned by the U.S. in 2019, in the largest known virtual currency heist to date. Tornado Cash was used to launder more than $96 million of malicious cyber actors funds derived from the June 24, 2022 Harmony Bridge Heist and at least $7.8 million from August 2, 2022 Nomad Heist. The action was taken pursuant to Executive Order E.O. The designation of Blender Tornado Cash is based on OFAC's May 6, 2022 designation of the virtual currency mixer. It allows users to gain anonymity when transferring assets. The Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC said on Monday that Tornado Cash was helping hide billions in capital flows, including for North Korean hackers.
The Dutch public prosecutor's office for serious fraud, environmental crime and asset confiscation FIOD said Tornado was suspected of having laundered more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its inception three years ago.