US officials accused Samourai Wallet Mixer of processing $2 billion worth of illegal transactions and laundering more than $100 million worth of money.
The US shut down Samourai Wallet and arrested its founder for money laundering
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 24 issued an arrest warrant for Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill - two founders of Samourai Wallet - for money laundering. Rodriguez is currently detained by US authorities and awaiting trial, while Mr. Hill was also arrested in Portugal and awaiting extradition.
Prosecutor Damian Williams representing the DOJ stated:
“Samourai Wallet conducted illegal transactions worth more than 2 billion USD and helped launder more than 100 million USD from illegal black markets such as Silk Road and Hydra Market along with a series of fraud and hack other computers".
Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill are currently facing maximum sentences of 20 years and 5 years in prison, respectively.
The government has now taken down Samourai Wallet's website and the project's application has also been removed from Google Play in the US.
BREAKING: The Department of Justice has charged and arrested the @SamouraiWallet co-founders with "conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business." pic.twitter.com/gdEhPB0guo
— Will Foxley (@wsfoxley) April 24, 2024
Samourai Wallet offers Whirlpool and Ricochet coin mixing services, which take a user's coins in the original wallet, mix it with other users' coins, create a jumbled flow of coins, and finally withdraw the coins create a new wallet to hide transaction information.
The indictment of the US Department of Justice also presents many statements on social networks of the Samourai Wallet account, saying that it is ready to welcome Russian oligarchs and ignore accusations from Europol.
the samurai tweets don't look great in the context of a doj press release
— davis 🐺🦊 (@basedkarbon) April 24, 2024
but who among us tweets would look good in that context pic.twitter.com/gW0o6oRcL0
However, on platform founders.
The issue of privacy is increasingly being noticed by the crypto community, especially after Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin posted on X (Twitter) noting the privacy benefits of the Railgun copper anonymity protocol . continuously interact with this project.
The US government has become increasingly strict in dealing with “mixer” services. Previously in May 2022, the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) under the Treasury Department imposed fines on with Blende.io for participating in the money laundering process in the Ronin/ Axie Infinity hack . By March 2023, the US and Europe both shut down the ChipMixer mixer and ordered the arrest of the Vietnamese founder.
In August 2022, the US placed the Tornado Cash website on its sanctions list . A year later, Tornado Cash co-founder was arrested and is awaiting trial .
Coin68 compiled
Join the discussion about the hottest issues of the DeFi market in the Fomo Sapiens chat group with Coin68 admins!!!
