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Founders of Samourai Wallet Arrested and Charged with $2 Billion Money Laundering
In recent developments, founders of the renowned Samourai Wallet have been apprehended in different regions, with their platforms seized by respective authorities.
Samourai Wallet is a well-known cryptocurrency wallet that places a strong emphasis on privacy and security. Its notable features include coin mixing and stealth mode, designed to enhance user confidentiality.
On April 24, 2024, a press release from US authorities unveiled charges against Samourai Wallet concerning alleged money laundering activities amounting to $100 million, believed to be linked to the dark web market.
Reports suggest that Samourai Wallet facilitated approximately $2 billion in “unlawful transactions” since 2015, calculated by converting the value of laundered bitcoins to US dollars at the time of each transaction.
Official records indicate that the Samourai Wallet team accumulated $4.5 million in fees for their crypto mixing services.
Founder Keonne Rodriguez was apprehended in Pennsylvania and is scheduled for arraignment, while CTO William Lonergan Hill was arrested in Portugal and faces extradition to the US. Rodriguez and Hill are potentially facing 20 years and five years in jail, respectively.
The crypto mixing platform, previously hosted in Iceland, has been seized, with a warrant issued for the removal of the Samurai mobile application from the Google Play Store.
In response to these events, former CIA agent Edward Snowden criticized the US authorities for targeting a tool that provided financial privacy to individuals.
Notably, a similar incident occurred in August 2022 when US authorities took action against the popular crypto-mixing platform Tornado Cash. Edward Snowden later extended legal support to Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash.
