Samourai Wallet founder arrested and charged with money laundering
Author: Nikhilesh De, Cheyenne Ligon, CoinDesk; Translator: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged Samurai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with conspiracy to launder money, as the U.S. government continues to prosecute cryptocurrency mixing tools that may be used by illegal actors and foreign governments to hide money transfers.
The two developed, marketed and operated the mixer, which "facilitated more than $100 million in laundered transactions from illegal darknet markets," according to a press release issued Wednesday.
In total, Samourai has facilitated about $2 billion in "illegal transactions" from 2015 to date, the release said. The accompanying indictment said the figure was determined based on the "time of each transaction" in Bitcoin.
According to prosecutors, Rodriguez, 35, and Hill, 65, collected about $4.5 million in fees. Different features had different pool fees, according to the indictment.
The two were charged with conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges carry maximum sentences of 20 and five years, respectively.
Rodriguez was arrested Wednesday morning and will go on trial in Pennsylvania today or tomorrow, according to the press release. Hill, Samourai Wallet CTO, was arrested in Portugal on Wednesday morning and will be extradited to the United States.
The Iceland-based Samourai Wallet website has also been seized, and a seizure order has been issued to the Google Play Store for the Samourai mobile app.
After the developer of Samourai Wallet was charged on Wednesday, its website homepage was replaced with a warning from U.S. officials. (Samourai Wallet)
The DOJ press release states that Samourai has been in development since 2015, and Rodriguez and Hill "encouraged and openly invited users to launder money through mixers," ... Screenshots of marketing materials list "restricted markets" as a target demographic, along with online gambling and asset protection.
Wednesday's arrests come as the Justice Department prepares for the upcoming trial of Roman Storm, the developer and co-founder of cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash. The case is being pursued by the DOJ's Southern District of New York. The DOJ's Washington, D.C., district recently successfully indicted Roman Sterlingov, the operator of cryptocurrency mixer Bitcoin Fog, on money laundering charges.
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- May 01, 2024 12:52 pmCoin Center Research Director: The U.S. Department of Justice exceeded its authority in Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet casesRecent actions by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) against non-custodial crypto wallet developers have sparked controversy and concern in the cryptocurrency community. According to Coin Center, the charges mark a significant shift from previous U.S. policy on money transmission, potentially impacting the freedom and privacy rights of developers and users. Coin Center research director Peter Van Valkenburgh said the development marks a "criminal enforcement of regulation" and is overreaching. The shift, which comes amid recent charges against Samourai Wallet developers and the ongoing Tornado Cash case, suggests the U.S. Department of Justice may be overhauling its approach to cryptocurrency regulation. Valkenburgh elaborated on the severity of the situation, saying, "Since at least 2013, the U.S. government has had a clear and consistent policy that developers of cryptocurrency wallets and users of those wallets are not money transmitters." He also added that the potential reclassification of all wallet software as money transmitters, regardless of the nature of their operations, would stifle innovation and infringe on users' rights to independently manage their digital assets. (Bitcoin.com)
- Apr 30, 2024 4:27 am사무라이 월렛 설립자 보석금 $100만... 재판 전 가택연금미국 법무부가 공식 홈페이지를 통해 익명성 암호화폐 지갑 앱 사무라이 월렛(Samourai Wallet) 운영진 2명을 기소한 가운데, 이중 한 명인 사무라이 월렛 공동 설립자 케오네 로드리게즈(Keonne Rodriguez)가 100만 달러 보석금을 낸 것으로 알려졌다. 코인데스크에 따르면 그는 무죄를 주장했으며, 가택연금 하에 재판을 받게 된다. 케오네 로드리게즈의 다음 심리는 오는 5월 14일(현지시간) 열릴 예정이다.
- Apr 29, 2024 12:18 pmUS Prosecutors Accuse Samourai Wallet Co-Founders of $2 Billion Illegal TransactionsAccording to CryptoPotato, two co-founders of a crypto mining service named Samourai Wallet are facing charges for allegedly conducting unlawful transactions worth $2 billion. The co-founders, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, are each charged with money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The former charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York stated that Rodriguez and Hill were arrested on April 24, 2024. Rodriguez was apprehended in the United States, while Hill was detained in Portugal. The US is seeking Hill's extradition. Following their arrest, authorities seized Samourai’s domain and servers, making the application unavailable for download in the United States. Rodriguez and Hill developed and operated Samourai from 2015 to 2024. The service included a cryptocurrency mixer called Whirlpool and a hopping service named Ricochet. Prosecutors allege that these features helped to conceal the source of criminal proceeds, serving as a “safe haven” for criminals looking to launder illicit funds. They further claimed that the defendants knowingly processed a substantial portion of criminal proceeds through Samourai for purposes of concealment. Through Whirlpool and Ricochet, Samourai reportedly executed more than $2 billion worth of unlawful transactions and laundered $100 million in crime proceeds from illegal dark web markets. Rodriguez and Hill allegedly encouraged users to launder criminal proceeds using Samourai, earning $4.5 million in fees from Whirlpool and Ricochet. Rodriguez and Hill are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Each of these charges carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and five years, respectively. The US government continues to intensify its crackdown on crypto mixers, which are believed to be used by criminal elements for money laundering. In March, federal prosecutors scored a victory against Roman Sterlingov, operator of the crypto mixer Bitcoin Fog, who was found guilty of charges relating to money laundering. Other cryptocurrency mixers such as Tornado Cash and Blender.io have previously been sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
- Apr 25, 2024 12:20 pm사무라이 월렛, 20억 달러 규모 불법거래 혐의로 기소미국 수사 당국이 사무라이 월렛 서비스의 핵심 운영자인 키온 로드리게스와 윌리엄 로너건 힐을 체포하여 중대한 금융 범죄 혐의로 기소했다고 발표했습니다. 혐의에는 자금 세탁과 무허가 송금 사업 운영이 포함됩니다. 당국은 사무라이 월렛이 수십억 달러 규모의 불법 거래와 자금 세탁을 조장했다고 주장하고 있습니다. 20억 달러 규모 불법거래 조장 혐의 데미안 윌리엄스 미국 검사는 사무라이 월렛이 실크로드나 히드라 마켓과 같은 악명 높은 온라인 마켓에서 범죄 수익을 세탁하는 주요 허브였다고 보고 있습니다. 이들은 금융 규제를 위반하는 것 외에도 범죄자들이 부당 이득의 출처를 은폐할 수 있는 안전한 통로를 제공했습니다. 또한 국세청 범죄수사국(IRS-CI)의... source: https://kr.beincrypto.com/regulation/54717/
- Apr 25, 2024 7:33 amSamourai Wallet Founders Arrested Over Alleged Money LaunderingAccording to PANews, the co-founders of cryptocurrency mixing service Samourai Wallet have been arrested. Prosecutors claim they are suspected of laundering $100 million from Silk Road and other illegal markets. Keonne Rodriguez, the CEO of Samourai, and William Lonergan Hill, the CTO, were charged with operating the Samourai Wallet. Prosecutors stated that Samourai is an unlicensed remittance company that participated in 'over $2 billion in illegal transactions, and provided over $100 million in money laundering transactions for illegal dark web markets including Silk Road'. Rodriguez was arrested on Wednesday morning and will face trial in Pennsylvania. Hill was arrested in Portugal, and the United States is seeking his extradition. The prosecutors also stated that Samourai's web servers and domain names have been seized, and the application can no longer be downloaded from the Google Play store in the United States. Rodriguez and Hill are charged with money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting business, with maximum sentences of 20 years and 5 years respectively.
- Apr 25, 2024 6:40 amSamourai Wallet founder arrested and charged with money launderingFederal prosecutors in the United States have charged Samurai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with conspiracy to launder money. Rodriguez was arrested Wednesday morning and will be tried in Pennsylvania today or tomorrow, according to a press release. Samourai Wallet CTO Hill was arrested in Portugal on Wednesday morning and will be extradited to the United States.
- Apr 25, 2024 3:20 am미 법무부, 사무라이 월렛 설립자 2명 기소미국 법무부가 공식 홈페이지를 통해 익명성 암호화폐 지갑 앱 사무라이 월렛(Samourai Wallet) 운영진 2명을 기소했다. 사무라이 월렛 공동 설립자 케오네 로드리게즈(Keonne Rodriguez)와 윌리엄 로네건 힐(William Lonergan Hill)은 20억 달러 이상 불법 거래 및 1억 달러 이상 범죄 수익 세탁 혐의를 받고 있다. 법무부는 이들을 오늘 아침(현지시간) 포르투갈에서 체포했으며 범죄인 인도 절차를 밟고 있다. 또 법무부는 아이슬란드 당국과 협력해 사무라일 월렛의 서버를 압수수색했다.
- Dec 07, 2023 12:10 pm사무라이 월렛 "오션 채굴풀, 프라이버시 트랜잭션 검열"사무라이 월렛(Samourai Wallet)은 잭 도시 트위터 창업자가 투자하고 비트코인 초기 개발자 중 한 명인 루크 다쉬르(Luke Dashjr)가 CTO로 있는 채굴풀 오션(OCEAN)이 12월 6일부터 월풀 코인조인(Whirlpool coinjoin) 및 BIP47 노티피케이션 트랜잭션을 검열하고 있다고 지적했다. 월풀 코인조인, BIP47은 사무라이 월렛의 프라이버시 거래 서비스로, 전자는 코인믹싱, 후자는 주소 숨기기가 중심이다. 사무라이 월렛은 "루크는 월풀 트랜잭션에 버그가 있다고 주장했으나 이는 거짓말이다. (중략) 프라이버시 강화 트랜잭션을 검열하기로 한 오션의 행동은 비트코인 프로젝트의 사이버펑크 뿌리가 희석된 또 다른 예"라고 주장했다.
- Dec 07, 2023 11:43 amSamourai Wallet accuses Luke Dashjr-related mining pool OCEAN of starting to censor privacy transactionsWallet service provider Samourai Wallet posted on the Both are private transaction services promoted and implemented by Samourai Wallet, the former focuses on currency mixing, and the latter focuses on address hiding). Samourai Wallet said that Luke had said that there were bugs in Whirlpool type transactions, but this was a lie. Ocean’s decision to censor private transactions is yet another example of the cypherpunk spirit of Bitcoin being undermined.
- Oct 13, 2023 8:22 pmSamourai Wallet funds 3D printed gun documentaryOdaily Planet Daily News Samourai Wallet is considered the executive producer of "Death Athletic: A Dissident Architecture," a documentary about Cody Wilson, an advocate for homemade guns. The film is directed by Jessica Solce , will hold private screenings in New York on Saturday and in Austin, Texas next weekend, with a digital release scheduled for October 21. Solce said: "Samourai joined the production in 2021 and provided funds to help me complete the film". Another executive producer wouldn't reveal the film's budget, but said it was a six-figure number. (CoinDesk)
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