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.
In the midst of a crackdown on crypto privacy technology, Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, has entered a plea of not guilty to charges of laundering and operating without a license.
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