Summary:
A suspected developer of crypto mixing service Tornado Cash continues to be arrested in the Netherlands.The individual was reprimanded from the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service on Wednesday.Authorities claim the unnamed suspect was involved in money laundering activities through the mixing service.The arrest happened shortly after the U.S. sanctioned Tornado Cash.44 wallet addresses associated with Ethereum and Circle’s USDC were also blacklisted.
Dutch investigators arrested an unnamed developer in Amsterdam in connection to Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing protocol sanctioned from the U.S. Treasury over concerns that this service was leveraged to launder over $7 billion in illicit wealth.
Tornado Cash launched in 2019 and functions like a crypto mixing service. The solution allows users to obscure the foundation of these transactions in the blockchain.
The news headlines was revealed in the statement shared by Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD). At press time, comprehensive information on the average person and their alleged involvement inside the crypto mixing service are scarce.
[DB] Dutch Police Arrest Suspected Tornado Cash Developer
– db (@tier10k) August 12, 2022
However, the FIOD statement claims the fact that 29-year-old aided in obscuring illegal cash flows from the crypto mixer and participated in money laundering. Also, investigators claimed a task force dubbed the Financial Advanced Cyber Team Fact (FACT) launched a probe in to the crypto mixer in June 2022.
FACT suspects that through Tornado Cash is accustomed to conceal large-scale criminal money flows, including from (online) thefts of cryptocurrencies (so-called crypto hacks and scams). These included funds stolen through hacks by way of a group thought to be connected with North Korea.
The FIOD stressed that extra attention will be paid to decentralized organizations suspected of using advanced technologies for illicit operations.
U.S. Government Sanctions Tornado Cash
Developments in holland seriously the heels of sanctions in the U.S. Treasury Department contrary to the crypto mixing service. U.S. authorities reportedly issued a blanket ban on the usage of Tornado Cash and added the protocol to its Specially Designated Nationals list on August 8.
44 Ethereum and USDC wallet addresses were blacklisted and put into the list aswell.
The move is continuing to grow right into a topic of widespread debate on social media marketing platforms like Twitter as users argued contrary to the decision and labeled the ban to be a “war on privacy”.
The war on privacy
– Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) August 12, 2022
On the other hand, other stakeholders like cyber security firm Mandiant opined the fact that sanction could possibly be essential to stem North Korean cyber operations. Principal Analyst at Mandiant, Fred Plan, told EthereumWorldNews the fact that outfit had monitored North Korea’s use of technology in supposed money laundering transactions.
We have observed North Korean actors repeatedly and consistently targeting such services as well as leveraging other methods for moving ill-gotten funds in a variety of schemes to support the regime in Pyongyang. These operations frequently spill outside of cyberspace, demonstrating the creativity and persistence of these operators.
– Mandiant’s Fred Plan