Arrested Tornado Cash Developer Blamed for Having Links to Russian Secret Agency

New details concerning the background of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev have just come up.

According to intelligence firm Kharon, Pertsev has previously worked for Digital Security OOO which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2018. The company allegedly has links to the Russian intelligence agency FSB and is believed to have developed a project in 2015 to help scale Russia’s offensive cyber capabilities.

Earlier this month, Alexey Pertsev was accused of facilitating money laundering and was arrested by the Netherlands' Fiscal Information and Investigation Service on August 10. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Tornado Cash as well for its alleged connection to North Korean hackers who might have used the service to launder around $1 billion.

Pertsev's arrest has spread concerns among other open-source software developers in the crypto space. Around 50 people have come out to protest in Amsterdam including Pertsev’s wife Xenia Malik. She has recently spoken out about the allegations and denied her husband’s connection to FSB.