Ethereum Foundation compromises $ 1.25 million to help the legal defense of the cash tornado developer

The ethereum Foundation (EF) today announced a donation of $ 1.25 million to support Alexey Pertsev's legal defense, stating that “privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.”

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The EF is donating $ 1.25 million to Alexey Pertsev's legal defense.

Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.

You can contribute to <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/alex_pertsev?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>@alex_pertsevDefense here: https://t.co/shwfnodj9g https://t.co/itveirkagt

– ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/ethereumfndn/status/1894704611606385012?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>February 26, 2025

Pertsev is working to appeal his sentence and a prison sentence of 64 months for money laundering, which was transmitted in May 2024. He was conditionally released from preventive detention earlier this month, and is currently under electronic monitoring.

The foundation movement follows the donation of $ 1.25 million of Paradigm to help Roman Storm, co -founder of Tornado Cash, in its legal defense against the prosecution of the United States last month.

The donation occurs in response to concerns about the Prosecutor's Office case, what The co -founder of Paradigm, Matt Huang, argues that “threatens to make software developers criminally responsible for The bad acts of third parties. “

Last December, the co -founder of ethereum, Vitalik Butein, contributed 50 eth, for an approximate value of $ 170,000, to a legal defense fund for storm and pertsev through the Juicebox Free Pertsev and Storm project.

Storm indicated that the contribution represented about 25% of the $ 650,000 available through Justicadao before his trial.

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Thank you <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>@Vitalikbuterin For helping us to finish the year with a good note, with a donation of 50 eth to the legal assistance of Roman and Alexey.

Zk is the future. https://t.co/wiy8b6v4qa pic.twitter.com/sm16lhnuc7

– Pertsev & Storm Free (@Freealexeyroman) <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/FreeAlexeyRoman/status/1874141953610441087?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>December 31, 2024

Pertsev was arrested by the Dutch authorities in 2022 for his participation in the cryptographic mixing service. In May 2024, he was declared guilty of money laundering and received a prison sentence exceeding five years.

American prosecutors then charged Storm and Roman Senov of money laundering, violations of sanctions and fraud related to their roles with the tornado cash. Storm received the bond before his trial, scheduled for April 14, while Semenov remains in general.

The charges followed the US Treasury Foreign Assets Control Office. , they had used tornado cash to wash more than $ 7 billion in cryptography assets since 2019.