Founders of Samourai Wallet Arrested and Accused of $2 B Money Laundering 

Samourai wallet founders have been arrested in different jurisdictions, as well as platforms have been seized by the corresponding authorities.

Samourai Wallet is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency wallet known for its emphasis on security and anonymity. It offers features like coin mixing and stealth mode to enhance user privacy.

On 24 April 2024, A press release by the US authorities confirmed the charges against Samourai Wallet over allowing the money laundering activity worth $100 million linked to the dark web market.

As per claims, Samourai Wallet enabled approximately $2 billion worth of “unlawful transactions” since 2015, calculated by converting the value of laundered bitcoins to U.S. dollars at the time of each transaction. 

So far officially, the Samourai wallet team generated $4.5 million in fees for their crypto mixing services. 

As per the report, wallet founder Keonne Rodriguez was arrested on Wednesday morning and will be arraigned in Pennsylvania today or tomorrow. Samourai Wallet’s CTO William Lonergan Hill was also arrested on the same day on Wednesday morning in Portugal and soon he will be extradited to the U.S.  These two people will be sentenced to jail for  20 years and five years, respectively. 

This crypto mixing platform was hosted in Iceland and now has been seized as well as a warrant has been issued for Samurai’s mobile application to the Google Play Store.

Former CIA agent Edward Snowden shared his response opinion on this action and criticized the US authorities over their action against the crypto mixing wallet which was providing financial privacy to people.

It is worth it to note that in Aug 2022, a similar kind of action was taken by the US authorities against the popular crypto-mixing platform Tornado Cash. Later Snowden provided his legal fund support for Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash.

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