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The hacker behind Cork Protocol’s $12 million exploit has sent $11 million worth of stolen ether (ETH) through Tornado Cash and donated $24,000 to the legal fund of the crypto mixer’s founder.
Crypto security firm PeckShield claimed the exploiter has transferred 4,520 ETH to Tornado Cash so far. Earlier today, they sent 1,410 ETH, worth almost $3.4 million, to the mixer.
PeckShield also reported that the Cork Protocol attacker donated 10 ETH, worth over $24,000, to the legal fund set up by Roman Storm, who is currently being prosecuted in the US.
Read more: ‘Sherlock missed it’: Cork hacker slams audit firms in on-chain messages
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin also donated $500,000 to the fund through the Ethereum Foundation, promising that it would match $750,000 in public donations, presumably including the hackers’ donation.
The fund has so far collected $722,793, just over $1.2 million from its $2 million goal.
Cork Protocol was hacked via an access control vulnerability that wasn’t flagged in audits. The Cork team attempted to reach out to the exploiter earlier this week, but that hasn’t stopped them from depositing funds on Tornado Cash.
Tornado Cash appeal challenges evidence
In a similar case in Amsterdam, fellow Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Perstev, who was found guilty by a jury over money laundering charges, is reportedly planning to challenge trial evidence and appeal his case.
Bitcoin Core developer Sjors Provoost attended the appeal hearing and informed The Rage about what happened. He said Perstev’s defence “is now asking which specific transactions came from the hack, where they went, and how the trace can be reconstructed to show that this money did go through the Tornado Cash service.”
Read more: Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm is running out of money for legal fees
He said, “The defense argues that it’s not enough for the government to simply point to some media articles to prove that these crimes actually happened, asking for a conviction in some court or at least a statement from a victim.”
To achieve this, they are seeking access for government-level usage of Chainalysis’s software. Provoost says they have likely requested this to retrace crypto transactions after receiving a spreadsheet missing key information, such as transaction hashes.