US Authorities Arrest and Charge Samourai Wallet Founders for Money Laundering
American authorities have charged crypto mixer Samourai Wallet founders for allegedly operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
In an announcement, U.S. authorities said Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill have been found guilty of allegedly executing over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and laundering over $100 million in criminal proceeds.
The co-founders unlawfully combined multiple unique features to execute anonymous financial transactions. The Samourai Wallet offered a “privacy” service which keeps your transactions private and your identity masked. Both of the defendants knew that it was a haven for criminals to engage in large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion, said the U.S. Department of Justice press release.
From 2015 through February 2024, both Rodriguez and Hill developed, marketed, and operated a cryptocurrency mixing service known as Samourai, which was an unlicensed money-transmitting business from which they earned millions of dollars in fees.
According to the release, the defendants intended and knew that a substantial portion of the funds that Samourai processed were criminal proceeds passed through Samourai for purposes of concealment.
“During the relevant period, Samourai laundered over $100 million of crime proceeds originating from, among other criminal sources, illegal dark web markets, such as Silk Road and Hydra Market; various wire fraud and computer fraud schemes, including a web-server intrusion, a spearphishing scheme, and schemes to defraud multiple decentralized finance protocols; and other illegal activities,” said the DoJ.
The DoJ said both Rodriguez and Hill operated social media Twitter (now X) accounts that encouraged and
